


The Devil Within

by tempered_rose



Category: Football RPF, Real Person Fiction, Sports RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Historical, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Character Death, Deception, Dream Sex, Dreams and Nightmares, Established Relationship, Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, I write too many damn au's, Implied Relationships, Lies, Minor Character Death, Multi, Multiple Pairings, Past Lives, Past Violence, Possible Character Death, Reincarnation, Seduction, Sorry Not Sorry, Tags May Change, Vampires, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-11
Updated: 2016-05-22
Packaged: 2018-03-01 01:17:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 17
Words: 60,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2754155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tempered_rose/pseuds/tempered_rose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"If you knew the truth about me," he started and hoped Benedikt would change the topic of conversation. He's only a little disappointed but mostly unsurprised when Benedikt chooses to remain silent instead, "you wouldn't want to help me at all." </p><p>"Why don't you tell me the truth, then?" Benedikt asked and Mats doesn't have to look over to see the raised eyebrow there. "Tell me why I shouldn't help you." </p><p>Mats knew it was the moment to tell him at last. He should explain everything about their history and tell him the truth about everything, the past and why he didn't remember now. The tell-tell heartbeat that came from the man in front of him stopped Mats from doing just that. Benedikt was mortal now; if he knew what he had done before, before he had been born again into this living form, who would say he wouldn't descend into madness and resist anything to do with Mats? After all, he didn't have time to repair the psyche of a broken man. He had a coven of vampires to save...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Another Dream Ends

**Author's Note:**

> ……yeah, so I wrote a Vampire AU. Don't judge me. Unless it sucks, then judge away. Hopefully it won't. I'm trying to go for un-cliche vampire lore. Aka I'm going back to classic Anne Rice vampires or Bram Stoker's legend. More soon to come, please tell me what you think. :) I'll probably update the tags as I go along also, by the way.
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The music came across his senses so clear, clearer than any crystal, that it must have been real. He could see it all in front of him; a full ballroom of men and women with their waltzing partners together underneath several large diamond chandeliers. An orchestra played on a raised platform across from them all and the operatic soprano sang so wonderfully it was an enchantment of its own just to hear her voice carry the way it did.

Yet somehow it was all so strange. It wasn’t real; there was no way it could have been. He had to be dreaming; he could remember falling asleep. Still, he did not wake from the sleep he must have been in and watched the merriment in front of him. They all looked so pleased, so happy that he wanted to join in. He was standing on the final few stairs before the floor opened out in front of him and his hand rested on the polished banister. He yearned to take a few steps forward, but he could not. It was as if he were frozen to where he stood, unable to move, unable to do more than watch. A moment later, he was glad of this, because he would have screamed for sure as the scene changed in front of his very eyes.

At once, one half of the partners across the dance floor displayed sharpened teeth and plunged them into the necks of their dance partners. He stood rooted to the spot and watched, not with horror as he later felt he should have done, as they _fed_ from their victims. The soprano herself stopped singing to hiss, and display her own teeth before she turned on the man that had been conducting the symphony behind her.

The last thing he heard before he woke was not the quick end to the orchestra’s playing, nor the growls of the monsters as they consumed the life’s blood in front of him, but was a voice, deep and familiar somehow as it spoke to him.

‘ _Come back to me. Awaken, my Benedictus, and come to me._ ’

He never saw the owner of that voice, but he wanted to. There was something about the tone of it that called to some part of him that he didn’t know he possessed until that moment. There was a desire inside of him to reach out and take the offered hand, but he couldn’t because the sounds of the morning outside were calling to him, pulling him away from the staircase and back into the world of the living until he was no longer asleep and instead opened his eyes to find the sunlight streaming across his face.

Benedikt squinted in the light as he sat up and rubbed his head. He felt the beginnings of a headache coming on and he sighed. It was far too early in the day to be waking with a headache. It would linger all day, if he knew anything about his moods and his headaches, which he did after thirty years of life on Earth.

What concerned him about this morning’s awakening was not the fact that he woke with a headache, nor the brightness or loudness of the day that was blossoming outside, but was the nature of the dream that he had just had. He could remember it all now, but likely he would forget by the time the morning had drawn to a close. He roused himself enough to lean over and pick up his black leather-bound journal and the keg of ink and his pen and he began to jot down the details from what he remembered. He dated the page and began to scribble his notes. When he was done, he blew lightly over the still-wet ink on the page and as he did so, the previous day’s words caught his attention. He swallowed and glanced over his former scrawlings.

A disturbing pattern was emerging. This was the fifth dream in a month and he had no cause for explanation. He had read no fantasy stories, nor ones of horror. He had not heard any untoward news of note that would be the creation of such events. Benedikt swallowed his nerves and he looked at the final sentences he had written for that morning’s entry.

‘The emotion that was conveyed inside of me at the substantiation of the event in front of me was not of fear, nor concern, and that is what truly worries me to the depths of my personage. In the place of those emotions, I felt a polydipsia for that which the monsters in front of me had created, voracious in my need to have that which they drank. I am revolted by the possibility that I have a desire to taste the blood of my fellow man, but what else am I to believe? By my own testament from earlier days, this is not the first time nor—I fear—will it be my last. I will at once go to the priest in the church and confess my sins and beg for forgiveness. Perhaps my soul could be saved from this grievous atrocity.’

Nodding with his course of action in mind, Benedikt closed his journal and set it aside along with his pen and ink. He stood from his bed and made himself ready so that he could head to the church just as he had said and speak with the priest. Perhaps he would leave out the part about drinking blood and simply say that he had a few ‘unpleasant dreams’ with a disturbing nature to them and that would be enough for God. After all, what would the holy man say if he were to be completely honest about what he had thought of?

Benedikt began to pull up his trousers. He had no desire to be sent away to the asylum any time soon. He reached for his dress shirt and he considered what he should do for the rest of the day. He would come up with something, he was sure of it.

He finished dressing and picked up his walking stick. He put on his overcoat and secured his hat in his hand which he would put on once he had walked out the front door of his home. He started down the hall and nodded once to his maid, greeting her with pleasant tidings for the morning, and he started out into the London air. It was already busy; in fact, he was late for the day, and he turned eastward, heading towards St Paul’s Cathedral. He would have to hire a cab to get him there in time for mass; it was too dreary of a day to be walking, otherwise he would have done just that instead.

Benedikt pushed the thought of those vile creatures from his mind and drew the attention of one of the carriage drivers. He handed over a coin and gave instruction on where to take him before he climbed in and settled himself in for the several minute journey towards the cathedral. He looked out the window and sighed, wondering if such monsters really existed, and if they were out there, he prayed they stared far, far away from himself. After all, he was going to be a married man soon enough and he wouldn’t want anything, anything at all, to interrupt his intended nuptials to the beautiful and sweet Lisa. Pleased with the thoughts of happier things, Benedikt leaned his head back on the seat and closed his eyes and focused on the face of his future bride and pushing aside the pleasant feelings associated with that silken voice of the man who had called to him in his dream.


	2. An Alleyway Attack

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy BALLS. I tried for so many days to update this, I'm so glad I finally got there! *ahem* Thank you all for being patient and reading the first part. I do apologize for the delay D: Here is the second part, I hope you like it. And as always with all my work, please R&R, concrit is most welcome. *bows*

He was having a little difficulty walking, he had realized somewhere between the last pub he had left with his friends still there and the boarding house that he had taken rooms in in Chelsea. Benedikt stopped to rest against a wall on what he believed to be the corner of Chancery Lane and Fleet Street, but he wasn’t quite sure if he was accurate with his estimations. It was dark out and he wasn’t the most coordinated of men right then anyway. He took a deep breath of air—which proved to be a poor choice from the smell of the river nearby and the smell of the rain mixing with sewage—and tried to clear his head from being disoriented with drink and the smell of cigars that had littered the pub that he had been inside of for the better part of an evening.

Benedikt had been in the company of some of his friends, or at least that’s what he usually estimated they were. Right now, he considered them to be nothing short of devious scoundrels who had purposefully intended to get him to the most intoxicated state imaginable and leave him with little to no cognitive functions whatsoever. They likely would have succeeded if Benedikt hadn’t had the sudden and strong urge to vacate the premises and find the nearest, preferably his own, bed to collapse in and sleep the night’s frivolities off for fear of the nausea that he had acutely discovered overtaking him. As it was, he was fairly confident he would not like the state of himself in the morning, if he could even be roused that early. He felt at that moment that he would not be rejoining the conscious world until mid-afternoon, at the least.

He groaned as he slumped against the wall. He was not this sort of man, at all.

For some time he lingered there, with the stench of the city surrounding him on all sides and the only sounds were those of the distant horse drawn carriages on the more busy Fleet Street, but even this late there were few of them milling about. The river could be heard as well, lapping against the banks as it did, but that was a far fainter sound. He had to strain to hear it. What seemed to be occupying most of his consciousness were the loud tenacious beat of his heart in his chest and the pounding of blood in his ears. It would not be silent and it caused quite a roar. He hated it. Benedikt was overtaken with the sudden desire to rid his stomach of its contents and he began to retch, turning around the corner to do so, one hand still braced against the wall.

Once he was done, he leaned backwards and rested heavily against the wall there and breathed deeply to calm his nerves. He was in desperate need to get home, though the urgency had faded only slightly since he had just relieved his stomach of part of the contents of his day’s feastings. He dabbed his forehead with his sleeve and frowned when he heard that he was not alone. He groaned a little to himself. He wasn’t presentable looking like he was in the state he was currently in. He made an inane effort to straighten his shirt and tuck it into his trousers; the gesture was proven futile as it served to only crease his shirt more and smear dirt from the bricks all over himself. Benedikt sighed in exasperation from his efforts and listened as what sounded to be a scuffle began on the alternate side of the wall that separated his person from the other side of the corner.

Carefully, as much as he could make himself to be at any rate, he shifted his head to look around the wall and see what he could as he heard two men struggling with one another.

At first he saw nothing except the blackness of the street and the distant gas lamp down the corner. He frowned, wondering if he had just concocted such a thing in his mind, when his eyes finally adjusted to the gloom enough that he could make out two shapes. Pleased with himself for at least confirming he had in fact heard _something_ , he was too startled to react when he saw the more slender of the two men get his partner in the altercation at an angle so that it was easier for him to bend his head over the other man’s neck. Benedikt didn’t register at first what the other man had done, and it wasn’t until the bigger man was sinking down towards the ground that Benedikt realized he had been bitten.

His eyes widened in horror and he felt the urge to vomit again; the bile rising quickly into his throat. Truly, his worst nightmares had come to pass in front of his very eyes. Such monsters _did_ exist and he was a witness to it. The thought of that stopped him cold in his tracks. He was a witness. He had seen what just happened. He would be next; he was sure of it. He made a clumsy step or two backwards in order to move as quickly down the street as he could. With any luck, he would make it back down to Fleet Street or at least Chancery Lane or wherever the hell he could get to with any time. If he failed in making it that far, he could scream loudly. Perhaps that would draw a witness to his own murder and they could chase away the foul beast before he came to any real harm. It was a long shot, he guessed, but he had to try.

Benedikt’s foot slipped on the pavement and he stumbled, catching himself on the brick wall but not before it scraped the skin of his palm. He hissed a curse and felt a cold chill run down his spine. He heard a low _thud_ and he foolishly glanced over his shoulder. He turned just in time to see the body that had been held by the monster only a moment before land on the ground. No one was near it at all. Benedikt felt his heart stop and he turned to face the street in front of him when he came almost face to face with what could only have been the monster that had just been behind him. Blood still dripped down the monster’s lips and down onto his white linen shirt. He smiled toothily and Benedikt swallowed.

“Evenin’.” The monster said before he advanced on Benedikt, who was quickly stepping backwards. Fear was coursing through his system just as fast as adrenaline was. With heightened senses he stared at the creature in front of him and felt another pang of pity for the beast. In appearance, the face of his attacker was that of a youthful man, not a teenager any longer, but nor did he have the face of a hardened gentleman by trade or experience. If Benedikt had to guess, he would place the man in his mid-twenties, perhaps a little younger. By dress, he was of the poorer classes, though it was here that Benedikt’s observations came to their conclusion for his assailant had backed him most squarely against one of the walls in the alley.

“Ought not have been out so late for a stroll sir, lots of ruffians about, if you didn’t know…” the lad said with an accent similar to that of what belonged in Seven Dials or perhaps another slum. “But then, I really don’t think that will be your problem much longer, if you know’s what I means sir.”

Benedikt thought himself foolish for having left the security of the more populated streets as well as having gotten to such an intoxicated and therefore useless state on his own. He was a gentleman of some education and standing; at the very least he ought know better than find himself in such a predicament. The time for self-reprimand would be later, if he ever would have a ‘later’ that was. He cast a cursory glance about himself but saw nothing of use as a weapon. He doubted much he would be a match in a boxing contest against this creature, especially in his state of being at that moment, but still, he would have to try since there was no alternative option.

“Nothin’ to say have we? Well, I do like my dinner to be more quiet than feisty. Though it does get a bit borin’ like that. Can’t have it all, though, can we?” The thing in front of him began to chuckle and Benedikt felt uneasy as he watched in what little light the distant gas lamps could provide for him as the beast’s eyes darkened to crimson in front of him.

“Hasn’t anyone told you that you should not play with your food, Wilshere?”

A voice like silk, finer than golden honey, carried across the alleyway towards them and Benedikt watched as the monster, Wilshere, in front of him closed his eyes in what appeared to be a very agitated expression. Benedikt thought the beast would have groaned aloud if he felt inclined to do so, but he didn’t. His death momentarily stayed, Benedikt cast a sideways glance to see the source of delay and annoyance to his would-be murderer.

“Matter of a fact, no, they hadn’t. What business it is of yours, I can’t rightly put my mind to figurin’. Why don’t you piss off? Or at least state your purpose here?” The fiend called Wilshere spoke but Benedikt was too lost in his new study. He was intoxicated yes, but he did not believe alcohol could check the features on which he then gazed.

A gentleman stood, more finely dressed than Benedikt had seen in recent recollections, leaning on his silver-tipped walking stick that had the handle carved into what Benedikt assumed to be a wolf, from this distance it was impossible to tell. He did notice the fine black leather gloves that disappeared in the shadows of the darkness and around the handle of the walking stick. And it was easy for Benedikt to say that this stranger looked the epitome of fashionable and immaculate; his black trousers revealed no dirt and they clung like a second skin to his muscular legs. His boots were of quality leather and stopped near his knee. His overcoat was pricey in fabric and was the most contradictory example of threadbare there could be. A snow-white cravat rested over what Benedikt could speculate would be a fine silk shirt.

But what was perhaps the most remarkable about this man was not his style of dress nor ease of posture in the presence of such a being as what he obviously knew this Wilshere person to be, but the mere countenance of his face to the whole. He was, simply put, the most handsome man Benedikt had ever seen.

Not even the top hat that graced his head could hide the shoulder-length dark curls of hair that fell from his head to his muscular jaw half-hidden from his hair. His eyes were keen, astute in their regarding of the scene in front of him, though from this light Benedikt could not see their color. Benedikt could not help but stare, but when this handsome man spoke again, it was as if another honeyed coating of untoward sensation danced along his nervous system.

“You know my name, don’t you, Wilshere?”

“Aye, I knows it _sire_.” There was more than just a hint of sneer in Wilshere’s remarking upon this man’s title. Benedikt could absolutely believe that this newcomer was one hundred percent titled gentry; he would have no qualms about believing that at all. “Still don’t answer me questions.”

Quicker than Benedikt could blink, the newcomer moved his arm and seized Benedikt’s attacker by the throat and lifted him high into the air; so much so that Wilshere’s legs dangled beneath his body uselessly. His arms gripped the obviously strong forearm that continued holding him in a new elevated status and he glared at the man who had so effortlessly ensnared him. Benedikt would have been impressed by such a feat—and he was, truthfully so at the heart of the matter—but he was also growing increasingly alarmed. If anything could so arrest something as foul as Wilshere, then it did not bode well for Benedikt and the likelihood that such a creature would also be human. What was even more alarming was the fact that he had no sooner thought about making a run for it while the two others were otherwise engaged than he had the focus of the well-dressed stranger, without the pleasure of his eyes even moving from Wilshere’s body.

“I would not think of running if I were you, sir. I would have you caught before you could get more than a meter away.”

“I believe you.” Benedikt breathed and he was not mistaken when he saw the stranger’s lips twitch in the inclination of a smile before it faded altogether and the stranger addressed Wilshere again. Benedikt could only watch in morbid curiosity and paralyzed fear as the two interacted with one another.

“Now, dear Jack, you were about to tell me why—knowing who I am, after all—you decided to impugn my honor with your laziness when it comes to propriety.”

“I don’t think I was going to be doing that, sire.” Jack Wilshere gasped out when the stranger loosened his hold only so that the other wretch could speak.

“No, I did not think that you were.”

With a great snarl and merciless thrust, the stranger tossed Wilshere to the side as if he were nothing more than a piece of paper that one had balled up and deemed unhelpful. He stood his ground, even when Jack rose to his feet, hissing and snarling as he did so. The stranger blocked the way for Jack to rush at Benedikt—a gesture Benedikt was grateful for—and he simply lifted his walking stick to hold it mid-shaft, the way one would hold a club. Jack took a look to the stranger and then to the stick before he took a step back.

“Now why don’t you run along back to your slums before I find other work for you to do?” The stranger stated in such a tone that had Benedikt’s heart run lifelessly slow for the threat.

“When I find my master and tell him of this—”

“—I will have a word with him myself. Be gone with you, else I will string you up until morning’s light comes…”

The threat meant more to Jack than it did to Benedikt, but it must have held some sacred weight to it because Jack turned on his heel and disappeared into the shadows. Benedikt, suddenly aware of how shaky his senses had become, began to stumble again. He would like to blame it on the drink from earlier, but it was far more likely the relief of knowing he was out of immediate peril and then the realization that he was still far from safety as could be came before he could stop it. He was weak with anxiety and he leaned against the wall just as the stranger turned to face him.

“Come, you are not safe here yet, my friend.” The creature came over and slid an arm easily around Benedikt’s middle and hoisted him into standing on his own legs. Benedikt refused to say that he leaned closer into the muscular body, nor would he admit the odd sensation of being pressed another man, or the coolness of his skin. He, in fact, did not have much time to focus on anything because they were instantly moving through the night in flight and he could peer down and see the hundreds upon hundreds of rooftops that littered the landscape of London from horizon to dull, gray horizon.

Benedikt had never flown before, nor did he think he would ever. It was an oddity of immense proportions to be on remotely the same plane as a bird, but there he was. He began to get startled, however, when the ground began to come back up closer and closer, green as the grass of one of the Park’s meadows appeared to take over where the rooftops had been. He closed his eyes shut and held tighter to the being that had gotten him away from Fleet Street and the Strand and into one of the empty parks in the city. It wasn’t until they landed upon solid ground did he release his hold on his reluctant hero.

“Thank you, I think.” Benedikt took a step back once he had his bearings and he looked around. He then swallowed. They were entirely alone. “Might I have your name, sir?”

He turned back from looking around the empty lawns and saw that his companion was watching him very carefully, and looked somewhat confused. Benedikt could not understand such an expression.

“You mean to say that you do not know it?” He asked with a raised eyebrow and Benedikt shook his head, throat suddenly dry and he had a craving for cups and cups of water. “Then let me introduce myself," The other man seemed more curious over this fact but instead removed his hat the way a gentleman does when they first greet an esteemed person and he bowed.

“My name is Mats Hummels.”

He rose then and Benedikt nodded once. “Pleased to make your acquaintance sir.” He frowned then. “Why did that other…um…well, why did he call you ‘sire’?”

Again, Mats looked confused and Benedikt could not imagine why. However, this expression cleared as easily as it had the first time and Mats answered, only this time his answer shocked Benedikt into silence and staring.

“Because I am the Grand Duke of Hesse, and well he knows who I am.” Mats moved closer then and smiled coyly at Benedikt before he trailed a gloved finger down the other man’s cheek. “Just as you would do well to remember it, _Benedictus_.”

Benedikt frowned at the name. He had heard it in that tone of voice before, but he could not place where. He also shivered at the touch on his skin. He remained entranced by Mats’ eyes and let himself be held there as the rest of the Park faded away into the night and the only thing that remained was the ever-darkening crimson of Mats Hummels’ eyes.


	3. Suspicions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After being long overdue, I present an update to this story! I dedicate this chapter to Ralphcjk who requested I finish this story. I shall do my best to do that for you <3 I'm not entirely thrilled with this chapter but I promise the next one will be better. I just have to get there first!
> 
> Thank you for your patience, and enjoy <3

Benedikt’s head felt heavy and muddled with cotton as he opened his eyes that morning. He obviously had had far too much of the bottle the evening before, but surely that couldn’t have been the only reason he was so out of his senses? He groaned as he moved over to the side of his bed and let his head dangle off of it. If he was going to be sick, he would prefer to save his linens from such an action. He would feel bad if his maid, Maria, would have to clean up her master’s foolishness.

He kept his eyes closed and must have fallen back asleep because he heard a soft knock on his doorframe along with the voice his valet, Christoph.

“Sir? I’m sorry to disturb you but you have a guest in the parlor.” Christoph sounded almost sheepish to wake him but Benedikt groaned.

“I’m indisposed.” Benedikt managed to barely reply with such a mouth so dry as his. He really needed some water, or some wine.

“Shall I dismiss Mister Neuer then?” Christoph asked and Benedikt groaned again.

“Tell him to wait, and send me some strong tea.” Benedikt ordered after a moment’s pause. He heard Christoph’s compliant ‘yes sir’ before the soft tread of his footsteps faded away. Benedikt moved himself back onto his mattress and closed his eyes. There was a definite throb in his head now as it pulsed with the feeling of a hangover. It’d been a while since he had last been this intoxicated and he hated that he had stooped to this level. He was trying to be a respectable member of society after all...

Maria knocked lightly on his door and entered it when he grunted a reply. Her footsteps were almost silent on the thick rugs that covered the floor as she entered his rooms and carried a tray of tea over to his bedside table. She curtsied out of formality before she left his room and Benedikt was grateful to have such a loyal servant who knew how he liked things.

Groaning, he pushed himself onto his elbow and set about pouring a cup of tea. He didn’t bother to doctor it like he normally would have with cream and sugar and just sipped it as strong as it was to help revive him from his stupor. After a few sips, he leaned back into the bed and waited for it to ease his mind with his eyes closed and his body splayed out on the bed.

It was in such a position that Benedikt began to recall something very strange indeed. _Red eyes that burned of crimson, boring into his mind and making him feel weightless._ Benedikt started and opened his eyes and for some inexplicable reason his heart had begun to pound rapidly in his chest.

He frowned and tried to recall more but all he could see were red eyes and nothing beyond them, no face, no body, only those eyes drawing him in and enticing him. Benedikt closed his own once again and tried to see if anything else came to him, and he was reluctant because he was afraid of what he might uncover. When nothing further came, Benedikt roused himself more and began to dress himself fit for receiving of his friend.

Benedikt put on his clothes without help from his valet and tried to recall where he had seen those eyes before. It wasn’t like a normal person would have eyes in that shade, so it must have been an actor or feature on a person… Clumsily, he put on his clothes and started down to the drawing room where undoubtedly Manuel would be cheerful despite the earliness of the hour and the fact they had both been drinking to the wee morning hours only the night before.

As he had thought, it did come to pass that exactly that happened. Benedikt entered the drawing room and saw Manuel sitting comfortably in one of Benedikt’s chairs with a tray of tea placed in front of him on the table.

“Nice to see you’ve made yourself at home in my parlor, you fiend.” Benedikt grumbled as he sat opposite his friend and put his head immediately in his hand to shade his eyes as much as possible.

“I see you look a bit worse for wear,” Manuel laughed and leaned back in his chair. “I have seen you far more buggered than this when we go out drinking. Perhaps we did overdo it a little last night, but that’s no excuse for this level of insobriety. Man up, Benedikt and have some tea with me.”

Benedikt sighed and took a moment before he fixed himself some tea. Unlike before, he did put some cream and sugar into this cup and he sipped it slowly to avoid burning his tongue like he had almost done earlier. It took a few moments of silence along with the occasional sip before Benedikt began to feel alive again, almost human, once more. He saw Manuel watching him with an amused look that only an old friend could have about them when another dear friend would make a fool of themselves in some way. Benedikt thought about what Manuel had said and frowned a little.

“What time did I get home last night?” Benedikt asked and leaned back as Maria brought in another tray, this time full of a few pastries that their chef had prepared intentionally for a breakfast that Benedikt had never gone to.

“I’m not sure since you left before I had the chance to.” Manuel shrugged and reached forward to take a frosting-covered cake. “I think that was around midnight.”

Benedikt nodded slowly and didn’t reach for a cake on the tray. He didn’t think overloading his system with sugar and sweets would be the best cure for his hangover.

“So you stayed later than I, drank more than I, and yet you don’t appear to be worse for wear at all…” Benedikt accused and sipped more of his tea.

“I have a very skillful regimen I imagine.” Manuel smiled and Benedikt wanted to throttle him for looking so calm and collected and _sober_ while he happily munched on his afternoon tea. Afternoon tea… Benedikt checked the time and was surprised to see it was around five in the evening. He frowned deeply. How had he missed an entire day?

“What is it?” Manuel asked and wiped his hands on a handkerchief.

Benedikt shook his head slightly, so not to rattle his calming mind. “Maria, what time did I arrive home this morning?”

Maria came to attention when addressed and she spoke softly. “The gentleman brought you in sir around four.”

“Gentleman? What gentleman? Lord Neuer?”

Maria shook her head. “I beg your apologies, sir. I don’t know the man’s name and he did not leave a card. But he was a handsome fellow and well dressed. He arrived with you here and apologized for the late hour. He insisted on bringing you inside sir so I allowed it.”

“You let him into our home?” Benedikt asked, appalled more at the fact that he couldn’t remember such a gentleman or the fact that four hours had elapsed from the time Manuel had last seen him to when he arrived home when it should have taken an hour at the very most.

“Only so that he could carry you upstairs. He insisted, saying that I never would have been able to get you up the stairs myself.” Maria sounded apologetic. “I dare say he was correct in that, but I apologize if I overstepped, sir.”

“It’s quite all right.” Benedikt replied with distraction in his tone. “See to it that it doesn’t happen again, though. I don’t want just anyone to be let into here.”

“Yes, sir.” Maria took a step back to rest against the wall and bowed her head. “I apologize again, sir.”

Benedikt did not reply and his mind raced as fast as it could despite the lack of clarity in his thoughts. He could allow for one hour to be unaccounted for. That’s about the time it would have taken for him to walk back from the pub that he, Manuel, and the other lads had gone to the night before. It would have been of course much shorter had he taken a cab, but he didn’t think he had.

He was unaware of the concerned look that Manuel was giving him because he was too focused on trying to piece together what had actually happened last night.

The memory was vague and for some strange reason Benedikt didn’t think it was entirely due to all the alcohol he had consumed. If it was less than Manuel and he had definitely left before his friend, then there was no way he could have been more intoxicated than Manuel. How many nights had they spent drinking together throughout all of their lives to end up equally hung over and miserable? And if Manuel was fine, or at least appearing to be more well put together, then Benedikt definitely should not be this wretched.

He tried to stumble through his recollections of the previous evening but it was labored.

Benedikt could recall leaving the pub and stumbling down the street. There hadn’t been a cab for hire nearby so he’d stumbled ahead and started walking back towards the house he was occupying. That’s where it went fuzzy.

“Benedikt?” Manuel called for him but Benedikt lifted a finger indicating that he should wait a moment. He thought he was onto something.

A flash of red stole through his thoughts and those red eyes came back to him. A body lying on the street, a figure hunched over it, and red, red eyes boring into his own. Blood dripping from something onto a white shirt. Sharp pointed teeth. And then blackness, blacker than the night surrounding them.

Manuel kept his eyes on Benedikt but dismissed the servants in the room. He waited for them to leave before he moved over to crouch next to Benedikt’s chair. A frown of worry lined his face and he rested a large hand on his friend’s.

“Benny, what is it?” Manuel frowned and waited for a response.

Benedikt had gone paler and looked as if he were going to be ill. “Manu, I think that I saw a murder last night. But I can’t remember…”

He frowned and then leaned forward so that his head rested in his hands. Manuel looked even more concerned but he rubbed Benedikt’s back soothingly.

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know, Manu, I don’t know.” Benedikt sounded forlorn. “I think I saw a body and the killer when I was walking home last night. It goes all black from there and I can’t remember anything. Perhaps we should alert the police?” He glanced up to Manuel’s face then but the bigger blond shook his head.

“Perhaps we ought to wait to see if you can remember a little more first? There’s no sense in getting them involved if you absolutely can’t remember anything other than bits and pieces. Besides, you were drunk last night and that wouldn’t be very helpful to a police inquiry.”

“Maybe you’re right.” Benedikt replied after a moment, but he still looked uncertain.

“I’ll check the paper and see if any such crime was committed, how about that?” Manuel asked and Benedikt slowly nodded. Benedikt thought his friend was indulging him but why would he make this up? Manuel got up from the floor and went to the door of the drawing room. Benedikt heard him speak to Christoph for a moment, long enough to make a request that the copies of the paper should be brought at once.

“If there was something that happened, I’m sure the police would have put it in here asking for information.” Manuel sounded upbeat, or at least he tried to, about the situation. Benedikt again thought he was being indulged, the way a parent would let a child have a flight of fancy.

“I’m not crazy, Manu. I swear it.”

Manuel smiled a little. “I think lots of things about you Benedikt. Insanity isn’t one of them.”

“Perhaps you might.” Benedikt mumbled as he pushed himself from his chair and over to his whiskey cabinet. He sighed as he rested his hands on the polished wood of the cabinet before he opened it. He heard Manuel rustling through the copies of the paper that Christoph had just brought into the room. He poured himself a drink and waited to see what Manuel would uncover.

It took about a half hour for Manuel to go through all of them, Benedikt even helped a little, but Manuel eventually sat back and shook his head. He rubbed his eyes.

“There’s no mention of any kind of crime along one of those streets that you thought you’d been on, Ben.” Manuel said and Benedikt nodded slowly. Perhaps he had made up the entire thing? But what a thing to create. “Is there anything else you can remember?”

Benedikt hesitated to tell him about the scarlet eyes. His friend already thought him mad, no doubt of it especially after a search of the papers, and he didn’t want to add onto that. Benedikt shook his head and he lied.

“No. I cannot remember anything more.”

“Very well then.” Manuel moved to resume his chair and poured himself some of the now lukewarm tea. He frowned at the taste of it and Benedikt went to ring for a fresh pot but Manuel stopped him with a look. “How about we go to the club for the evening to get your mind off of this? If you like, we can retrace your footsteps and see how we do for amateur detectives?”

Manuel was smiling a little at that but Benedikt felt uneasy. Truthfully, he didn’t feel much like going out, never mind to a gentleman’s club. However, he wasn’t sure staying at home and lost in the myriad of his thoughts was a good idea either.

“Let me collect myself and I’ll meet you there, how about that?” Benedikt said and Manuel nodded.

“Sounds excellent to me. I’ll see if we can’t get Per and Max to join as well.” Manuel smiled and stood from his chair, leaving Benedikt alone in his own. “I promise it’s all right Benny. I won’t mention this to the others unless you want me to.”

Benedikt nodded his gratitude and Manuel excused himself with the promise of seeing him shortly at the club. It was only a moment later that Benedikt heard the front door close behind him and he was left alone in his home with his servants and his thoughts.

He thought he saw a murder, a handsome stranger brought him home, and he was haunted by the color red. He must be going mental, he thought as he started out of the drawing room. He was more than a little tempted to send his regrets for not going, but perhaps going out wasn’t a bad idea. He did like the idea of retracing his steps and perhaps if he had company this time it wouldn’t be so bad.

With that thought in mind, Benedikt allowed himself to be dressed in a fine gentleman’s evening wear and he started to leave the house. The carriage that he should have had wait the night before but had dismissed came round to pick him up because a light rain was falling and it was suspected that it would worsen before it would improve. As Benedikt climbed into the cab and the door clicked shut behind him, he could have sworn he was being watched, but as he peered out into the darkness for a sign of the culprit, he saw nothing.

Only darkness.


	4. A Curious Stranger

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See, I said more soon! :) We're finally starting to get to the good parts! Thank you for your patience ♥
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Thunder rumbled outside and the rain splattered heavily against the windows of The Athenaeum gentleman’s club. As it had happened, the weather had dictated the course of the evening’s events. Benedikt had arrived last of his three friends and no sooner had he stepped out of his carriage, did the sky rip apart with lightning and the rain began to torrent down. He had been soaked in the moments it had taken to collect himself at the base of the stairs and then to enter into the shelter of the roof of the expansive building’s porch.

Benedikt looked out into the gas-lamp illuminated night and still he saw no one making any particular study of him, apart from a few curious passers by that were likely wondering why a finely dressed gentleman was standing on the stoop of a prestigious club instead of actually going into it. If they even thought that much of himself, Benedikt thought to himself and shook of the feeling he felt whenever he thought he was thinking too highly about himself. Likely, the passers by were wondering where they were in reference to where they were going so that they wouldn’t have to continue on in the rain for much longer. Benedikt didn’t blame them.

He took one last look at the surrounding street of Pall Mall before he turned and started up the stairs. A loud rumble sounded above him as he was greeted by the steward and removed his overcoat. It was absurd to think of himself in danger here, in one of the most secure and restrictive buildings and clubs in all of London, and yet he still felt unsettled. No one had been on the street observing him, yet he still felt the sharp gaze of _someone_ upon him.

Sighing, Benedikt pushed the thought from his mind as he made a polite inquiry to the steward, Ramsey, about where his friends were. Given instruction that they had last been seen in the Coffee Room, Benedikt headed to that part of the building.

Normally, he would have admired the polished marble that surrounded him—on the floors, on the walls, the columns, and the very steps he walked on—but he had much on his mind that distracted him from the ornate surroundings that would have otherwise taken his thoughts. If the rain continued, and it very much sounded like it was going to, then retracing his steps from the pub in Lincoln’s Inn Fields back to his home near Covent Garden would be impossible, even if they were sheltered by a carriage.

Benedikt walked into the Coffee Room where the smell of the hot beverage greeted him and he felt himself relaxing a little. He very much would like to have a cup of hot tea after his journey, both to warm him up inside and also help relieve the headache that refused to go away. He saw Manuel standing by the fireplace and he appeared to be in conversation with Max Meyer and Per and someone else that Benedikt didn’t know. Benedikt sighed inwardly since he did not want to have to be particularly sociable in his current state, but now that he was here, he couldn’t be rude either. Mentally putting away his mild irritation, he continued forward and tried to place whether or not he knew the gentleman sitting with his friends.

The man was well dressed and in elegant clothing, although not that befitting someone of aristocratic inclination. Perhaps this man was a merchant or a lawyer of some sort? Benedikt looked him over and came to the conclusion that he did not in fact know him. The gentleman was blond and of average stature, physically in shape, and had a large smile when he showed it, which was often and had a laugh that was boisterous. Benedikt noticed these things in particular because the man smiled and laughed often, dragging Manuel and the other two along with him for his delight. Benedikt happened to notice his teeth as well; they were polished white and perfectly straight, an odd sight indeed.

“There you are!” Manuel said when he became aware of Benedikt’s presence. “I was beginning to think you had said you’d come if only to get me to leave your house!” Manuel moved over and slid an arm around Benedikt’s shoulders and pulled him closer to the fire. “You’re soaked through, stand here and be warmed.”

Benedikt shifted uncomfortably from the attention he had received, not only by his friends but by the stranger as well. He glanced at the newcomer for only a moment, but it was long enough to realize that he was being given a thorough onceover in study. Benedikt felt his cheeks warm, and he sat in the chair nearest the fire.

“I thought I was swimming here as much as it rained,” Benedikt replied and found he had a hard time relaxing despite the atmosphere of warmth and welcome he received.

“It’s nice to see you alive after last night.” Max said with a smile on his face. When Manuel and Benedikt stared at him, Max cleared his throat awkwardly as his face turned red. “I mean, after you’d been drinking so much with us, of course.”

Benedikt couldn’t suppress the sigh he felt internally at the words. Now he appeared to be a drowned wretch and a drunkard in front of someone he didn’t know, not to mention the unsettling feeling he had at Max’s mention of not being alive and the possibility he was a witness to a murder. From the way the boy had reacted when Manuel and he had looked at him, Benedikt guessed that Manuel had already filled them in, stranger included perhaps, about what Benedikt thought he had seen the previous evening. What a better way to make an acquaintance, he thought, to look like a foolish madman upon first sight!

Manuel shook his head at Max, the youngest of their friendship group, as he lifted a hand to bring the steward over. Benedikt looked up at the young gentleman, a boy of perhaps sixteen but finely dressed befitting his station and place of employment, and recognized the boy.

“Ah, Henderson. I’d love another whiskey if you please, and Benedikt would you care for anything?” Manuel asked, looking at him.

“Tea please, thank you Jordan.” Benedikt used the first name of the blond boy and he nodded once before he turned on his heel to carry out their request.

Benedikt was seated diagonally from the newcomer and despite the fact he had his head resting on his fist that was laid against the arm of the chair, he could no more escape the stares of the blond stranger than he could those of his friends. Per was seated next to him and Max was next to the stranger. Manuel remained standing on Benedikt’s right and he was beside a chair that he would likely occupy once his drink had been delivered to him. It was several moments of silence that went by before Benedikt could stand it no longer.

“Is no one going to make an introduction?” He asked, looking at the three of his friends, as he finally sat up and folded his hands in his lap.

“Oh yes, of course!” Per said jovially but out of slight embarrassment for not having done so earlier. “Benedikt, this is our newest acquaintance, Bastian Schweinsteiger of Bavaria. He is a guest in our great city for a few months before he returns to his home.”

“What brings you to London, Mr Schweinsteiger?” Benedikt asked and took the offered cup of tea from Jordan Henderson when the steward had returned with a small tea tray and Manuel’s drink. Benedikt glanced back to the Bavarian and saw him smile a little, a smile that suggested he knew something that the others did not.

Bastian waited for the steward to leave before he answered. Benedikt, meanwhile, had taken a sip of tea and thought it the most wonderful thing he’d ever consumed.

“I am here on both business and pleasure,” he replied in perfect English, though there was a distinct accent. Benedikt and Bastian both locked eyes and it seemed that Bastian was trying to peer into Benedikt’s soul, something that made him very uncomfortable; this was magnified by the fact a loud rumble sounded from outside. “I am trying to find an old friend, you see. I have not seen him in many years. It feels as though it’s been centuries.”

He smiled a little at that, in a coy way that Benedikt could not quite place. He shrugged off the turn of phrase.

“I know how you feel. It feels as if I haven’t seen Lisa in years.” He sighed and thought of his intended bride, feeling a pang of regret because it had been the first time he’d thought of her all day.

“What’s your friend’s name? Perhaps we know him.” Per offered his assistance and Bastian smiled a little.

“I appreciate your offer, my friend,” Bastian smiled and looked into Per’s eyes, “but I have a good feeling that I have found him and I need only confirm it tomorrow.”

Per nodded and Benedikt found it odd that he wouldn’t press the matter further. Benedikt was tempted to press also, but he became distracted by his tea and the feeling of lethargy he was getting from the fire.

“Before you arrived,” Bastian started and looked at Benedikt, “Manuel was telling us that you had quite an…experience last evening? He mentioned something of a murder?”

Benedikt glared at Manuel before shrugging. “I’m not sure what I saw. Perhaps it was a bad dream.”

“We looked through the papers cover to cover, and there was no mention of anything.” Manuel added, blatantly ignoring Benedikt’s glares.

“I’m glad you weren’t hurt, that’s the most important thing.” Per said, reaching over to rest his large hand on Benedikt’s knee. “You’re a dear friend and I’d feel extremely distressed if anything ever happened to you.”

“So would I. You’re the best one to give advice!” Max added quickly, blushing when he realized how loudly he’d spoken.

“That’s just because Manuel doesn’t know how to get himself out of one screwball situation to the next and needs a level head to watch after him.” Benedikt replied dryly and Manuel made a face. Bastian laughed at the exchange.

“Oh, I find all of you simply delightful. I do hope we can have tea again soon.”

“What a splendid idea. How about tomorrow for lunch?” Manuel asked as the others agreed to the idea, apart from Bastian.

“I’m afraid that does not work for me. You see, I was going to meet my friend…”

“Oh yes. Well how about dinner the following day?”

“Much more agreeable.” Bastian replied before looking to the others. “That is, if it is all right with you?”

Benedikt saw the others agree and found himself going along with it. “Why not?” he asked rhetorically before saying he’d be there.

“Then allow me to host for the evening.” Manuel added, “since it was my idea.”

For the rest of the evening spent at the club, Benedikt found himself relaxing once he had warmed up. He even had suggested that they all have dinner in the club, which they did in the dining room before they retired at long last to one of the smoking rooms, where the most comfortable of all the chairs were despite the fact that none of them smoked.

The group had covered a wide array of subjects from travelling—where Bastian seemed to have them all for it appeared that despite his youthful age he had been simply _every_ where—to literature, where Per excelled since he was a professor of the subject at King’s College. Benedikt had told tales of growing up in the country with Manuel and Max simply listened to all of them, being the youngest, he barely had any experience of the world except that of being a book-learned gentleman.

Benedikt could feel the evening drawing to a close as the patrons of the club began dispersing to return either to a borrowed room in the club or to their own homes. The storm’s thunder was less frequent, but it still came intermittently, and Benedikt was not looking forward to having to get back out into the weather to go home. He felt much more relaxed and comfortable near the fire and with a full meal in him to stave off another hangover. He had not touched anything stronger than tea for fear of a repeat the next morning. As happy and contented as he was, Benedikt knew he should probably go home. After all, he only had a week until he would be a married man and settled in the fields of Oxfordshire at his country house with his new bride.

The group had lapsed into quiet and it seemed that whoever moved first would break the fragile egg of their contentment with the rest of the world and would signal the end of the evening. Benedikt knew that moments that could not be relieved ever again but the feeling of them could linger behind as strong as the memory that made them. He had a feeling that this would be one of those times. He thought he would recall the heat on the right side of his face since he was closest to the fire, and the heaviness he had after having a rich dinner served from the club’s best roast and potatoes. The smell of tobacco from another man’s pipe mixed with the heady scent of cologne that the Bavarian wore that Bastian had said came from the far reaches of the Turkish Empire. Benedikt committed this moment to his memory but as he did so felt a strange sense of déjà vu that he couldn’t quite place.

He shrugged it off mentally and decided that he would be the first one to break the eggshell. He inhaled and sat up from his reclining position in the armchair and smiled at his friends.

“Well, sirs, if you’ll excuse me. It is getting rather late and I haven’t forgiven you yet for last night’s drinking.” He smiled a little and stood up.

“Well, if you’re going, I think I’ll go too.” Max agreed pretty quickly after Benedikt had spoken and Benedikt had expected as much from the younger man. Max wouldn’t ever admit it, but he was overly cautious of travelling about the city at night, especially when he was on his own. Benedikt simply nodded his agreement as they both indicated to Ramsey that they were ready for their overcoats.

Bastian rose gracefully as well and smiled at Manuel and Per. “I shall leave also. I need my rest, after all.” He smiled, again showing his teeth, and Ramsey started away to fetch their overcoats.

It took only a moment for the steward to return with another servant in tow to help the gentleman ready themselves to leave. Benedikt was handed his first along with Max and then Ramsey turned to Bastian and bowed slightly, a gesture he had not done with any of the four friends.

“Your coat, your grace.”

Bastian slid into the garment easily enough, reveling secretly in the looks from the four gentlemen he’d accompanied all evening. “Thank you, Ramsey.” He tipped the steward with a solitary gold coin. “Have my bill drawn up, I shall pay it tomorrow evening.”

Ramsey inclined his head and then dismissed both himself and the other servant. Bastian tipped his tophat that been brought along with his coat.

“Gentlemen, I shall see you the day after tomorrow.”

“Your grace?” Max squeaked, red in the face.

“Indeed,” Bastian said simply. “Bastian Schweinsteiger, Duke of Rosenheim at your service.” He bowed only slightly and smiled again, laughing at their expressions. “Good evening, sirs.”

With that he turned on his heel and began to stride out of the Athenaeum and out into the rainy night.

Manuel stared at his friends in shock. “I didn’t know…”

“I called him ‘Mister’!” Benedikt accused Manuel.

“We were so improper.” Max almost wailed while Per shook his head in disbelief.

“I hope you fix a very, very nice dinner, Manuel.” Benedikt shook his head before turning to Max. “Let’s go lad.”

Benedikt started in the wake of Bastian’s footsteps towards the exit and Max quickly followed behind, both of them could not believe that they had spent the entire evening in the presence of nobility who had acted as though he were a simple man of fortune instead of one with such responsibility.

* * *

Bastian arrived in the graveyard and flicked a speck of dirt from his sleeve as he waited for his companion to arrive. He removed his hat from his head and ran a hand over his hair to smooth it. The storm had moved a little further to the east, taking the rain with it, but the thunder still lingered in the distance as London slept.

He didn’t have to wait long before there was a soft rustle and he turned to see his companion descend from the sky. Mats’ wings folded behind him and the Grand Duke leaned on his walking stick in front of Bastian.

“Well? What did you think?” Mats asked at once and Bastian’s posture relaxed.

“It was as you suspected. He does not recall anything, but I do agree that it is most definitely our lost Benedictus.”

“And he did not recognize you?” Mats asked, curious fascination playing on his face. Bastian shook his head.

“Not in the least. Towards the end of the evening, I thought he might have been onto something, but it was gone before it fully registered. He has a lot on his mind.”

“How curious. Does he remember last night?” Bastian shook his head and Mats nodded, relieved of that any way. He had purposefully blocked Benedikt’s memories to relieve any anxiety that would have been caused witnessing a slaying such as what he’d seen last night. That was until Bastian spoke again.

“He is trying to. He wants to know what happened. It seems your memory altercation didn’t cover everything, and you neglected the maid. She recalled both the lapse of time and that you had been there.”

Mats hissed in aggravation as he cursed. “Demon’s wings! I did forget her.”

Bastian watched his superior and kept his thoughts to himself, shielding them from his master. He had a few things he could say, but he did not want to create a stir or a change in the way things had been going. Their coven had left the Germanic region because of Prussian influence and had settled in England and had been contented in the British capital and the surrounding area for almost two decades now. Bastian liked the place; he didn’t want to leave so soon after arriving, that would be rude.

“How would you like to proceed, Mats?” Bastian asked finally when the need to say something became stronger than he could resist. “Would you like me to watch him?”

Mats paced a small stretch of the graveyard, from one monument of an angel with an upturned face to a smooth slab that rose only a few inches off of the ground. He did this a few times before he turned back to his companion.

“No, I will do it. You will watch the coven while I am gone and you will protect our brothers and sisters from anyone that would do us harm.”

Bastian inclined his head and Mats moved over to place his hand on the other vampire’s shoulder. “Thank you, my friend, for your service. I appreciate your loyalty.”

Bastian’s lips flickered in a smile as he leaned forward in a bow. “Always, my master. Always.”

“And if you feel so inclined,” Mats said in a way that Bastian knew he was going to be inclined to do whatever he said, “please tell Thomas to _subtly_ find out where Jack Wilshere has slithered off to.”

The blond rose from his bow and quirked an eyebrow. “And once he has found him?”

Mats shook his head. “Just let me know where he is, that’s all.”

“As you wish, Mats.” Bastian smiled a little before turning to leave his master in the middle of the graveyard. “And Mats?”

“Yes?” Mats’ wings began to spread from his back as he would begin to take off into flight.

“Benedikt is to be married in a week’s time. I just thought you should know that.”

Mats hesitated for a moment before his lips pursed. “Thank you for telling me. I will deal with that as well.” He then stretched his wings and began to climb into the sky, mixing with the inky blackness of the night overhead. Bastian shook his head as he heard his master leave the graveyard and start towards Covent Garden.

“So long as you don’t hurt him in the process,” Bastian mumbled to himself before he started back towards the secret hiding place of his coven, his family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know technically there isn't a duchy of Rosenheim, but there's a reason I did this that will be explained later. So for right now, just go with me. ;)


	5. Dreams and Interrogations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really like this chapter personally, but that's just me. ;) >:DDDD More soon!!!

Benedikt was warm in his bed and lost was he to the world of slumber. One leg was stretched out underneath the blankets and the other was bent at the knee and stuck out slightly from underneath his covers. He was on his back, one arm resting across his chest and the other was extended out across the bed. He was snoring softly, but he could not have registered that so lost was he in his own peaceful sleep.

But Mats noticed.

The vampire watched from the shadows of the empty rooms across the street. He could see easily through the darkness and into Benedikt’s bedchamber as if he were inside it himself. If he desired, he could be, but this was safer. Besides, Benedikt could just be pretending he didn’t remember anything, but Mats suspected that was not the case; regardless, he wasn’t going to risk it on the rare chance he was wrong.

Mats had never liked the blond, never, not once from the start of their acquaintance. They had always been at odds with one another, which is why it was now strange to find himself in this position, Mats thought. On the one hand, he could leave Benedikt to the way he was and hope he never remembered anything about his past, their past… Or, he could help him remember and they could resume the ways of old. Mats was leaning towards the former, besides, it wasn’t as if they were in any real danger now anyway. Benedikt could continue with his human life none the wiser and who really would miss him, any how?

That didn’t mean he couldn’t have a little fun toying with him though, Mats grinned, fangs showing, as he watched the man sleep. He could hear Benedikt’s heart beating and the carnal instinct inside of himself had the desire to taste his blood and feed from him. It was a desire that he could control for now, since he had fed not that long ago. However, if he were to continue this nightly surveillance, he would need to feed more constantly.

It was raining again, but Mats paid it no mind. It always rained here and he was getting used to it. He leaned against the wall and watched as Benedikt slept, completely unaware of his observer. How to tease him best? The old Benedikt and he squabbled like children, though when they threw tantrums they were violent and skillful with their sorcery. Mats had the ability to bend minds, to make them his own and wield them as he wanted. He could mold memories and create new ones or cover up things that had happened. As a result, he was one of the most powerful vampires in the coven because no one dared get on his bad side. The old Benedikt had had a lesser ability of the same power, but he had alternative weapons of his own that Mats could only dream of. He wasn’t sure he would ever know what Benedikt had ever been fully capable of.

What would the old Benedikt hate the most if Mats were to play with his mind? The loss of a loved one was cruel, and Mats didn’t want to do that to this Benedikt. This Benedikt seemed sweet underneath his serious exterior, a bit curious perhaps, but sweet. Besides, there was the dilemma again on if he never remembered anything. Mats wouldn’t mentally torture a man who had done nothing more than be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Mats sighed and tried to think of a way to amuse himself at this Benedikt’s expense without potentially scarring him for life, or scaring him into a nightmare. That would be very counterproductive. Then he grinned and began to conjure his magic. He had _just_ the right idea that would amuse himself as well as Benedikt, if the other man would let himself indulge that was since dreams were the building blocks of reality, and perhaps the old Benedikt might come out to play…

* * *

It was as if he were in an entirely different time and place. Benedikt couldn’t make any sense of it, but the dream started well enough. He was given difference while walking through a corridor; the occupants made way for him and bowed slightly as he passed, as if he were a king or something. It was strange, no one in his life did that. Benedikt walked through the corridor, his feet carrying him to something, but he didn’t know what. Still, there was something inside of him that yearned for it, desired _it_ \--whatever it was.

Doors opened of their own accord and servants milled around a hall. Except, on second glance, they really weren’t servants. They were fellow people and they were sitting around chatting to one another or reading a book or doing whatever it was they felt like. There were torches mounted in iron brackets on the wall for light and thick furred rugs littered the floor. It was the richest set of rooms Benedikt had ever seen before. He continued moving and making his way through until he reached a smaller chamber off the main one; he hadn’t noticed the door there before. It opened effortlessly under his hand and he stepped inside. The door shut behind him and Benedikt couldn’t see because it was dark.

He stirred in his sleep; it was dark, he didn’t like that, but as if it had been magically done the room suddenly brightened on its own accord and Benedikt realized he wasn’t alone.

A stranger, more handsome than any man Benedikt had ever seen before, was laid out on a reclining sofa and it gave the blond man reason for pause. It was as if he’d seen him before, in this exact pose, though he couldn’t imagine how. He felt a stirring in his blood; something familiar, something _wrong_ , forbidden, about this man but how could that be? He’d never met him before. Still, Benedikt looked him over and—desire, what an unusual feeling—flooded through him and for a moment Benedikt couldn’t move, couldn’t speak. He wanted this man; wanted him, in the carnal way, and that was wrong, wasn’t it?

The dreaming version of himself apparently didn’t think so, since he moved forward to the reclining sofa. As if he anticipated the other man’s actions, the handsome stranger shifted to give him room before pulling him closer. As their lips met, something else stirred inside of Benedikt. Desire exploded into full-on passion and the sense of familiarity increased tenfold. It felt as if he’d done this before, kissed this man before, and it felt good. It felt as if it was supposed to be this way, forever and for all of time. Benedikt didn’t stop to think about that as he continued to kiss the other man, clothes being divested as they went.

They kissed deeply and touched one another’s bodies. There was hard muscle under the smooth, cool sensation of the brunet’s skin and a real power to his hands, as if he could break Benedikt if he wanted to. Instead of feeling afraid or concerned, Benedikt let himself go naturally with what transpired. They continued to kiss until Benedikt was on his back underneath his handsome partner and was being touched in a most delicate area as he was gently opened with the other man’s fingers. When he gasped at the feeling of being touched _there_ , his bedfellow smiled against the skin of his neck and kissed the mark he’d just made there before moving up to kiss Benedikt’s mouth again and inserted another finger into him. The natural feeling continued as Benedikt and the stranger made love—because that’s what it was, it wasn’t just a fuck, that much he was absolutely certain of—and Benedikt couldn’t believe what he was doing.

He couldn’t believe it so much that he woke himself up, complete with a painfully stiff erection and a feeling of being so flushed he didn’t think he would ever get over it.

“Oh God, oh God, oh God,” he repeated over and over as he put his face in his hands, sitting up in bed. He didn’t reach over to light a match and ignite a candle’s wick. He didn’t want the shame of facing himself in light after what he’d just dreamt. Benedikt shifted in his bed, his cock reminding him of how much he’d enjoyed what had been playing in his mind, and he felt even more guilty.

He loved Lisa, he was sure he did, but he’d never had quite the same reaction in her presence. And who the hell was that man? Why did he seem so familiar? Benedikt reached over for the journal he had kept and he hesitated to add this dream to the list of ones that were collecting. It hadn’t been a murderous dream like the others had been, but it had most definitely been out of his normal dreaming patterns. What on Earth had caused it?

Benedikt felt that the room was too stuffy, so he got up from bed, ignoring his erection as he moved over to the window. The rain had cleared off mostly, but it seemed to still be drizzling. The moon, however, had decided to make an appearance through the clouds and the street below was illuminated in a pale, silver light that made Benedikt able to see just about everything, even the puddles forming in the grooves between the cobbles of the street.

He pushed the window open and breathed in the cool night air and slumped against the window’s frame. What was the matter with him? Perhaps he should see a doctor? No, he thought and shook his head. They’d have him institutionalized for sure if he were to go see someone about dreams that didn’t make any sense. Besides, the penalty for even being a homosexual was severe and extreme, never mind if he were to have dreams about mythical creatures.

Something shifted across the street immediately after he’d registered the thought and his eyes were sharp as they noticed the change in shadows. Benedikt froze when he saw what had caused it. There was no way he was a real person. There was no way that the person opposite him in the building across the road was the same man. But surely it was as Benedikt stared, he moved further into the light and there was no doubt that could be left.

_The stranger from his dream._

* * *

Mats cursed in his native language when he realized he’d been spotted. That hadn’t been part of his plan but, unlike one of his kind, he definitely _didn’t_ have the ability to go back and change time. Did he fly off and make the human Benedictus wonder more about what he’d seen? Mats doubted it. He’d poked around subtly in the blonde’s mind while he’d been making Benedikt dream about himself and Mats together—a whole other story when you thought about it, Mats smirked for a moment out of sheer delight—and Benedikt was having too many questions for Mats to make this appear to be another of his dreams that he’d been having. It wouldn’t be believable.

Besides, Mats thought, he still had that invitation from the maid to go into Benedikt’s house…

He grinned before he jumped from the window in which he’d been perched and landed effortlessly onto Benedikt’s wide sill. Benedikt’s eyes had gone comically wide and he’d jumped back as if a spider had lunged out at him. Mats took advantage—not that he would have needed it, of course—of the cracked window and opened it further, stepping into the room as he did so. Mats made a show of looking around the room and took note of Benedikt’s things. He didn’t have too many possessions, but what he did have were interesting. Books, mainly. A few sketches and even a tin-type or two laying around. Mats saw one of a woman; his fiancée, he assumed.

All of those observations occurred within seconds, Mats processing everything quicker because of his abilities. He’d never been dumb, and superhuman strength and a thirst for blood made him sharper, quicker of mind. And more handsome, he thought as he smiled at the staring-human version of his least favorite person.

“Who—what—are you?” Benedikt asked, scrambling backwards towards his bed.

Mats tsk’d. “What an impertinent question. Shall I remind you, Benedikt?”

“How do you know my name?”

“I know lots of things about you, dear Benedikt.” Mats watched as Benedikt went to reach for a butter knife left from a tray that the maid had left for her master earlier. “Really, Benedikt? Do you think a butter knife is going to stop me if I wished to do you harm?”

Mats began to laugh, at first a chuckle, but it grew until he sat himself down at Benedikt’s desk in a comfortable arm chair. He crossed his ankles and watched the other man with his arms splayed open, giving him full access to his chest if he wanted it.

“Go on then, do your worst, if you dare.”

Mats watched Benedikt and, had this been before with the old Benedictus, Mats would never have left himself so open, so exposed. But Benedikt was going to attack him with a blunt object, then he was a poor fighter indeed in this new form.

Benedikt kept hold of the knife but did not advance, instead moving over to light a few matches to ignite the candelabra next to the bed. Mats crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head. The old Benedikt would never have turned his back on him, either. What a pity, this new Benedikt was dull and boring. Mats almost felt like sulking, almost, but he remembered the reaction he’d feel Benedikt have to his dream.

“I hadn’t expected that.” Mats whispered to himself and Benedikt turned.

“What?”

“That you’d be so poor a fighter,” Mats lied silkily and watched Benedikt maintain a firm grip on the knife as he kept as much distance as possible between himself and Mats in the chair. “It’s disappointing, Benedikt.”

“How do you know my name?” Benedikt repeated and watched him warily. “And who are you?”

Mats sighed. “You met me the other day, shall I help you remember it?”

“How would you do that?”

“Would you care to know the truth?” Mats asked.

“Just tell me.” Benedikt replied but Mats’ legendary impatience made an appearance and so he removed the mental blocks he’d placed in Benedikt’s mind the other night, the night of the murder. He watched the blonde’s expression and waited to see how he would handle the news. Benedikt went from dazed to confused to horrified in a matter of moments. Mats reveled in watching the expressions change across his face, he’d never seen Benedikt so open, so _readable_ before.

“So there was a murder then.” Benedikt replied and he appeared to be talking more to himself. Mats let him sort it out, making himself comfortable in the other man’s chair and steepled his fingers as he waited for Benedikt to come back to him.

It took a moment longer than Mats thought it would before Benedikt’s head whipped back to Mats.

“So they do exist? You…whatever you are. And Grand Duke? What the blazes does that mean anyway? And—”

Mats lifted a hand, ungloved since he’d gone without for the evening, and Benedikt’s ramblings came to a stop.  
“Now, now Benedikt, there will be time for all of that later. Now why don’t you take a seat there,” Mats gestured to the bed, “or here,” to the chair beside him, “and let me ask _you_ a few questions?”

“And why would I want to do that? I should kill you now before you do the same to me!”

“Let me ask my questions, then I will answer yours. Agreed?” Mats’ eyes hardened as his mood changed when Benedikt threatened him. So there was a spark of his old self in there, even if it was confused and buried under layers of ignorance and naivety.

“Fine. But I will stand, thank you.”

Mats shrugged and then rested his arms along the arms of the chair as he watched the blonde. “Very well. Do you remember anything about your early life?”

Benedikt frowned. “Why does that matter? I remember being a boy in Oxford and being educated at the university there and—”

“So the earliest reckoning you have is of your childhood in England?” Mats interrupted and Benedikt nodded once. “I see. How curious? My next question, have you seen any others like me around town?”

“No. But how am I to know what your kind are? You aren’t exactly the most conspicuous of creatures…”

“That is rather the point of my question and hence why I wanted the answer. I will refrain from asking any more at the moment. You may ask five questions, that is all I will give you now.” Mats waited to see what this ignoramus would ask him. He was truly disappointed that it wasn’t his Benedictus to torment and play with. “Make them good.”

His temper was simmering under the surface as he waited for Benedikt to ask. His disappointment had caused it to flare up and he no longer found amusement in teasing the human.

“What are you—exactly?”

Mats almost sighed aloud with the lack of creativity in Benedikt’s question. “I am nosferatu, upir, or, as you unimaginative English call it, vampire.”

Benedikt couldn’t believe his ears. They did exist after all. The horror stories of his novels and here one sat in front of him.

“Do you really survive on human blood?”

“Oh yes, it’s quite delicious.” Mats grinned, showing his fangs as he looked Benedikt over on purpose to make him uncomfortable. It had a counterproductive reaction because Benedikt’s heart began to pump even faster, making Mats thirsty for his blood. He watched Benedikt’s Adam’s apple bob in his throat as he strained to find the ability to create words.

“W-w-what does it mean to be a ‘Grand Duke’ of something?”

“It means I am responsible for a large group of nosferatu that sometimes act like children,” Mats sighed and thought of his coven. He almost added a fact about Benedictus, but he refrained. He wasn’t going to discuss that matter with Benedikt yet. He hadn’t proven himself worthy at all. “I am from the region of Hesse in Europe, thus I am the Duke of the vampires of my region. I am responsible for them.”

Benedikt nodded slowly and Mats could sense the curiosity that was underlying Benedikt’s fear and trepidation. Curiosity was something he could work with very easily; very, very easily. He could see the trap forming already on how he would ensnare Benedikt and bring him back into Mats’ world.

“How many of them are you?” Benedikt asked, sitting on the edge of his bed. If he only knew how easy it would be to topple him over, butter knife or not, and feed from his neck… Mats looked at the source of so much energy, the flesh would be so soft and so supple, he would taste delicious, Mats was certain of it…

“In my coven or in existence?” Mats asked, keeping his eyes on the point of Benedikt’s neck where the pulse pounded underneath his skin.

“Both.”

“There’s twenty or so that I am responsible for, I could not tell you how many there are of us in this world though. It’s not as if we keep a census.” Mats looked up then and met Benedikt’s eyes. The candlelight did nothing to enhance Mats’ keen sense of vision, but it did allow Benedikt to see how deep red a color Mats’ eyes were. It was driving Mats to distraction. “I need you to be calm, Benedikt. You’re making me thirsty with your fear being so out of control.”

Benedikt’s eyes widened again and he stiffened completely. Mats sighed when Benedikt did the opposite of what he wanted and he moved forward, easily springing from his reclining position and was almost instantly in front of Benedikt on the bed. Mats kept his eyes on Benedikt’s and slowly hypnotized him.

“Relax, Benedikt, calm yourself. I am not going to hurt you.” He said soothingly and Benedikt nodded slowly as Mats ran a finger lightly down the man’s cheek. He watched Benedikt shiver and Mats smiled inwardly. Oh yes, he had his trap in mind now. Softly, he spoke again. “Ask me your last question.”

Benedikt kept his eyes on Mats and Mats didn’t move from where he stood in between Benedikt’s thighs. Mats was a little tempted himself to just push Benedikt back onto the bed and fuck him now, but that could wait. He wouldn’t take him dubiously; he wanted Benedikt to beg him to do it because he wanted him, as much as the dream had made him realize that fact.

Perhaps it was the way Mats had entranced his senses, or perhaps it was the fact that Benedikt, at heart, really wanted to know. But when he spoke, Mats was a little surprised at the question.

“Were we ever lovers and I just don’t remember it?”

Mats’ eyes darkened for an entirely different reason as he felt arousal at the question, but he remained honest as he shook his head slightly. “No, we’ve never been lovers.”

Benedikt nodded slowly and Mats felt the urge to feed more than he had ten minutes ago. Damn him, he thought. Well, it was time to make his escape at last. He began to weave his magic again, folding Benedikt’s newfound sense of calm in with the comfort of his mind.

“Go to sleep, Benedikt. You will wake refreshed in the morning,” Mats said and even took the knife from Benedikt’s limp fingers and set it on the tray. Benedikt climbed back into bed and Mats pulled the blankets up as if he were tucking in a child. He was about to wipe this evening from Benedikt’s memory altogether when Benedikt surprised him again; he took Mats hand in his own and pressed his cheek against Mats’ palm.

“Don’t. I want to remember this tomorrow.”

Benedikt watched him with languid eyes and Mats considered it. It had never been his intention to let Benedikt actually _remember_ their conversation, but…he could alter it slightly. He wouldn’t make it a dream, but he would make sure that what Benedikt remembered the most was this feeling he would have, as if he were floating on a cloud and so peaceful and content, the way a predator hypnotizes its prey before it kills them, only Mats wasn’t going to kill him. Not yet.

“Very well.” Mats didn’t know what came over him but he leaned down and kissed Benedikt lightly on the lips. The desire he felt was still there, but he held himself in check as he leaned over slightly and whispered, “sleep well, my Benedictus.”

Mats then shifted back and moved over to blow out the candles. He watched as Benedikt fell back asleep before he moved back over to the window. The shadows were fading as the sun was nearing its time to rise. Mats would do well to get back to the coven before it rose completely and he would be in trouble. Sparing one last look over his shoulder to Benedikt, Mats stepped out onto the ledge and spread his wings as he started back towards his family.


	6. Into the Depths

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We have some backstory in this chapter, enjoy ;) Also, you kind of find out a little bit about Bene and Matsi.

_Carpathian Mountains, 41AD_

The night had fallen hours ago, drowning the ridge in darkness as the creatures of the forest began to go to sleep, except for the owl who came alive with newfound senses. It was not a dark night, however, as bolts of light streaked across the sky, chased by sounds of wicked thunder followed close behind. There was a wind that whipped across the peaks of the mountains, drawing the storm nearer to the village of Dacians that lived near the sea.

A solitary figure stood at the sharp, crested edge of one ridge of mountains and overlooked the treetops below. With keen senses, he could see everything despite the lack of light and he could sense the lifeblood of the small hut tucked into an outcrop of rock about three miles to the east. Three people lived there and they seemed as if they would taste delicious. However, he did not have time to be playing with his dinner, he had work to be done. He sighed and found himself growing even more impatient. His companion never could tell time worth anything; why should he have thought otherwise would begin now? He listened to the rustle of the wind, barely registering the coldness of it as it repeatedly battered him in the face. The storm was drawing nearer but he paid it no mind.

Eventually, he heard a rustle behind him but he did not turn around. A fresh gust of wind came, but this time it was from beside him as his companion lowered himself to the ground, folding his big black wings behind him as he landed.

“You are late,” he said in a language they could both mutually understand—Latin.

“Thank you for telling me, I never would have noticed otherwise from your sense of irritation and tone.” The other creature replied dryly and twitched his wings, as if he would leave the other to face the music alone.

“I’m always like this in your presence, _Matthias_.” He muttered and started walking along the edge of the rocks towards their destination. “I long for a day when we should never have to interact with one another again.

Mats ignored the proper usage of his name and walked shoulder-to-shoulder with his companion. “If only it could be so, Benedictus.” _If only it could be so_ , he thought with added vigor. He despised working with the man.

The pair continued to walk along the ridge, careful of their balance so that they wouldn’t slip. The storm continued overhead and the air shifted ever so slightly enough to indicate that the rain would be coming soon. Benedikt was the first to dip into the cave, instantly the thunder dulled to a quiet rumble behind them as the breeze died in the confined space. A few faint drops of water fell from the cavern’s roof in the depths of the recesses of the cave. Mats came in close behind, too close for Benedikt’s liking, but neither spoke a word to one another. Benedikt tilted his head slightly as he listened to the deep cavern while Mats used one of his senses to determine the direction in which they would need to go.

“Left.” Mats said just as Benedikt said “Right.”

Benedikt sighed. “It’s to the right. The sound is deeper there.”

“I can _see_ him, and he’s to the left.” Mats huffed and Benedikt rolled his eyes.

“Go your way, we will see who leaves the Master waiting.” Benedikt said smugly but Mats had already disappeared to the left in the darkness of the cave. Benedikt sighed and started to the right as he carefully picked his way around the fallen rocks and disappearing trails of the cave.

A mortal man would need a torch to guide him, Benedikt thought as he made his way deeper into the mountainside. There were places where the path disappeared but to a sliver of rock over a sheer drop that went God knew how far down. The cave walls were slick with moisture and it smelled stale and lifeless. The perfect place for their meeting, Benedikt added mentally as he continued on the path. Only the sound of his boots could be heard mixing with the drips from the water, occasionally a rock would slip past his feet and disappear into the abyss.

So it went for nearly an hour until Benedikt heard a flicker of a torch and something far more positive. It was the sound of a gate being opened and closed and it was coming from up ahead. The sound of it grated against the rocky floor as it opened and closed of its own accord, it seemed. No other footsteps were heard. When Benedikt arrived at the gate he saw two torches, one on either side of the opening and closing gateway and he paused for a moment and studied the scene with the added light.

He had come to an outcrop that was level for the most part where the gate was in the middle followed by a narrow path that led across an open expanse on either side of the path. If you slipped or were pushed you would fall, and fall, and fall, and Benedikt suspected there would be sharp rocks waiting for you at the bottom. He had seen this trap before in several different lifetimes. Across the plane, there was another outcrop that matched this one, only without the gate, but if he looked far enough, he could see a staircase rise from the floor and disappear into the walls.

Then he heard footsteps behind him and he wanted to sigh.

“Shall you go first then, or shall I?” Mats asked as he crossed his arms and stood next to Benedikt.

“And have you push me? I don’t think so.”

Mats rolled his eyes and started forward, approaching the gate with caution. He pushed it open and walked through, unharmed and continued forward across the narrow trail. Benedikt shook his head and followed after, only this time he pulled the gate towards his body to open it and he followed after Mats. Across the ledge, there was a small breeze coming from somewhere. Nothing happened to them as they crossed and reached the other side, the light from the torches fading into the distance behind them.

“Satisfied? I didn’t try to kill you, Benedictus.” Mats huffed and started up the stairs.

“Not today, perhaps, but I don’t trust you. I never will.”

“Then your’e smarter than you seem.” Mats retorted as they both began to climb the stairs, the squeaky gate fading behind them as another pair of torches rested high above them as they continued to climb the stairs. The cold faded once they reached a landing and there was more light here than there had been any other place. The landing stretched to form a corridor and beyond that there was a great door made of pine resting on giant iron hinges. It would take ten human men to push the beast open, but Mats and Benedikt opened the door together with minimal effort.

Once it had opened, their coven awaited them with their Master seated on a carved throne that was even more ancient than he was.

* * *

“You took your time to get here,” Marco said, reclining on one of the hand-carved chairs that rested in the corner of the room. Mats had come to his friend once he and Benedikt had greeted the master and they had been dismissed and allowed to go their separate ways ‘so long as they stayed close’ as the Master had commanded. Mats was seated next to his dearest friend, Marco, while he glanced over to see where Benedikt was and frowned when he saw the blond being sociable.

“I had to escape the arms of a beautiful lady,” Mats replied dryly and then changed his focus to the fire. Out of boredom, he made the flames dance a certain way with his mind.

“I trust she was dead when you left her.”

Mats nodded. “She was delicious.”

He liked this blond vampire the most. Marco was a loyal companion and had proven himself a good fighter. Mats liked his sense of impetuous behavior as well, it reminded him of himself when he was younger. And Marco had one other thing that endeared him even more to Mats; they could speak their native tongue together without needing a translator or other impediment. Mats was grateful to that. At three hundred years of age, he didn’t like having to translate himself when he could speak the Germanic ways just fine.

“The Master is calling for a decision tonight.” Marco replied and Mats looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “That’s what all of this is about.”

“I thought it was to discuss dinner choices,” Mats replied sarcastically but internally he was already thinking of a rational argument to prove his point. Marco ignored his quip and looked at the grains of wood that had made up his chair. Despite himself, his gift called to him and he could see and feel the energy from where this tree had come from in the Balkan mountains in the north. He pulled his attention away from it and settled himself to waiting for the meeting to start officially.

Across the room, Benedikt was listening to Thomas tell a story of how he had been tormenting a village in the mountains with thoughts of sprites and other impish figures. So like a child he was, Benedikt had a hard time remembering sometimes that Thomas was the fifth oldest in the room behind the Master, Philipp, Mats, and himself. Not even Bastian was older than he, and that was something Benedikt found quite amusing since they got along so well. Marco was older than Bastian, and that left the tribesman the youngest of the group. The fact that he was even a member of this coven was impressive enough by itself since he was so young.

“And so, I just let the village burn and I skipped my way back home.” Thomas finished with a flourish and smiled, fangs showing, at his handiwork.

“Well done,” Benedikt smiled slightly, but his mind was elsewhere. He knew what the meeting was about and he already had his preparations done, so strongly he felt about his cause. He’d had this argument ready from the start and only needed the audience to listen to it.

“Where is your devoted young companion, Benedikt?” Bastian asked and Benedikt almost smiled. He hadn’t forgotten about his entrusted servant.

“You know, I was just wondering that.” Benedikt replied and decided that he better find out where Julian had wandered off to now. He didn’t have to search very hard, because Philipp finally arrived with him in tow. At last, all the members of the coven were accounted for and Julian immediately rushed over to his master’s side, bowing.

“I’m sorry I’m late. Master Lahm kept me for a scavenging—”

Benedikt held up his hand, silencing Julian’s explanations, and the blond indicated next to him that Julian should take a seat, which he did. “It’s quite all right, Jule. You’re here now and that’s what matters.” Benedikt smiled, making the youngest vampire of them all smile also. Julian was the only one that Bastian had seniority over, a fact he delighted in with every opportunity he had.

The Master tapped on the arm of his throne with the large signet ring made of gold and with the crest of their coven etched into its surface. The others went silent as their attention focused solely on their leader.

“Thank you, my family, for coming.” he said, watching them all with a fatherly gaze of affection. The most ancient and most powerful of all their kind, and the personal maker of three of them—Benedikt, Philipp, and Mats—gestured them all closer as he began to open the proceedings in Latin, the one language that all of them could understand without issue.

“I know you are curious as the purpose behind my summoning you and I shall make it clear. With the Romans in the south gathering more power and more curiosities, they are pushing into our quiet little homeland here. So I present the matter to you for your consideration, do we embrace the Romans and meld into the world of humanity? Or do we continue to live detached and isolated from them as we have always done for the millennia of our species’ existence?”

The debate started up quickly enough, Mats shaking his head and saying no as Benedikt nodded agreement to say yes. As the others spoke over one another, it quickly resorted down to two differing opinions, that of Mats and that of Benedikt’s. Courteous as he was since he was raised with manners, Benedikt allowed Mats to speak first.

“We absolutely cannot live with the humans. It is far too dangerous to us. They will know of our weaknesses, they can learn them easily enough and we would be hunted down in the sunlight like dogs. I will not have our coven, our family, brought to ruination simply because there are more people in the world exploring more lands. We should remain hidden and only feed as necessary to continue our survival. We have never suffered for our isolation and I don’t see why that would start now.”

“Even though the Romans encroach upon our hunting grounds?” Philipp asked Mats.

“Let them encroach. We are so well fortified here that they would never find our nest. Besides, they may cross the mountains, but how many of them are smart enough to search _inside_ them?”

Mats let the silence continue and the attention shifted then to Benedikt.

“I find Mats, as usual, to be completely and absolutely incorrect with his beliefs. It is not only important that we adapt to the humans and live amongst them, but it is vital to our survival that we do. I’m not saying we should be the most sociable or the most powerful in their society, but we should not be afraid to call them our neighbors, friends even. We rely on them for our own existence, and if we lived amongst them it would be easier to get the nutrition we need but also we wouldn’t have to go for days or weeks without a feeding. With such a larger collective of blood, we would be more contented and what reason would we need to be ravenous? We could control our urges better and which of you doesn’t want to do that?”

“One day, the humans will learn of us,” he continued, “we won’t be able to hide in the fog of legend and myth. One day they will know the truth. If we live amongst them, perhaps they wouldn’t be so afraid. Perhaps they would even _want_ us to be around them. Could you imagine it?”

“And what if they learned of us, as you say, and decide that we are to be vanquished? Mats is right, all they would have to do is open our coffins in sunlight and we would have no choice but to burn.” Marco stood at Mats’ shoulder, having risen from his chair with his words.

“That is where our gifts could come in usefully. We could enchant our nest and ward off those ill-doers with no problems.”

The rest of the coven began to talk over one another again, the division became less-so and the Master waited until he had heard enough. He tapped the arm of the chair with the ring again and they went almost instantly quiet again.

“So, let us have it then. Who is in favor of mixing with humanity?” He asked and counted hands. Benedikt, Julian, Thomas all raised their hands. “And those opposed?” Bastian, Mats and Marco indicated their vote.

The Master turned his attention to Philipp and smiled kindly, already knowing the dilemma his vote would place upon him. He did not envy the man for having to decide amongst his friends. So, with as much kindness as he could relay, the Master asked him, “and you Philipp? What say you?”

Philipp, the firstborn of the Master and the oldest of the coven’s followers, looked between Benedikt and Mats for several long moments. As the Master had said, he had quite a decision to make. Finally, he sighed and turned back to his creator.

“I side with Mats, my Master. We should remain apart from them.”

Benedikt’s shoulders slumped as he caught a glimpse of Mats’ triumphant face. He looked at the Master and saw a kind apology in his crimson eyes before he spoke again.

“Then so it shall be.”

Benedikt turned away from Pep, his creator, and went to lurk in the shadows after his failure to win his family over. Julian went with him, not to speak, but for comfort only and Benedikt was grateful to him for it. Pep watched his favored disciple leave the group and he turned back to the rest of his family. He had foreseen this would be their choice and he wished that Benedikt had won the day, despite what he had seen when he’d gazed into the future more than two hundred years ago.

He leaned back on his throne and closed his eyes, looking into the future again to see what would happen next.


	7. An Odd Introduction

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ……okay so this is probably my favorite chapter so far. teehee. I like it! thank you for sticking with me thus far, I hope you continue to enjoy as I update :)

He was dreaming again, he was sure of it; only this time, there was no handsome stranger waiting in a chair for him. He was in a room, impossibly dark and so very, very cold. It was so quiet that there was a rumble in the distance, perhaps that was the sound of the blood rushing in his ears. And he was afraid, so afraid that he could feel it inside of him. It lingered there so strongly that he thought he was going to be ill.

Benedikt looked all around him but he couldn’t see anything, only the darkness. Finally, a sound that wasn’t the rumble came, and it sounded like a gate being scraped against a stone floor. Over and over it came and Benedikt found himself moving towards it, curious to what could be causing it but as he did so his fears continued to escalate. He came to a stop on a ledge but he could see it now; in the distance and surrounded by darkness, a gate was swinging open and it was flanked by two mounted torches. Benedikt only had time to blink and a new sight awaited him when his eyes refocused.

A man stood at the other end of the gate, and he too was a bewitching man, more than anyone Benedikt had ever seen before, even the German who’d visited him earlier. Benedikt watched as the other man took note of his own appearance before he growled low in his throat and then surged forward towards where he was on the ledge. Benedikt only had time to register the deep crimson of his eyes before he and the handsome stranger disappeared over the edge towards the dark abyss below and he could feel the rumble of the animalistic growl from the man just before his fangs sank into his neck…

 

Benedikt awoke with a start, gasping for air as his hand came up to his neck to feel for any sort of injury. It had felt so real, as if it had truly happened, and that sound, the horrible growl that he’d heard from the man before he’d felt the sharpness of his teeth in his skin was something he didn’t think he’d forget any time soon. He felt no mark on his skin, but that didn’t mean he didn’t question at how it could not be. Benedikt rested his elbows on his knees as he tried to calm his breathing. He wasn’t sure how long he’d been asleep for, but the sun was not fully risen yet either. The room was cast in a grey light and a soft mist was outside; he could see that much from where he sat.

Should he write this one down in his notebook? It felt different than the other dreams.

In those, he’d been an observer of the scene before him but here he had been a participant. In the other dreams, he’d _enjoyed_ what he’d seen but this one was different. He felt afraid, fearful, and so very, very cold. He couldn’t describe it properly since he’d never felt that way before in his life. Benedikt reached for his book and his pen and he noticed his hand was shaking. The dream that he’d just had was far, far different than any of the others and he didn’t like it.

“I must be going mad,” he said to himself aloud and slowly pushed himself up from his bed. He moved over to the window that was partially open and he frowned. He distinctly remembered shutting it the night before as he was always afraid a spider or something might come in if it was left open. He frowned and thought perhaps he’d had a burglar into his house when he happened to look across the way at the empty house from him and it hit him with full force.

Oh _God_.

Benedikt collapsed into a chair, the very same chair that Mats the vampire had sat in the night before, and he put his head into his hands. He truly was going mad. Vampires, dreams of a graphic sexual nature and the violence in the others, the feeling of being bitten being so tangible, a midnight visitor calling in his personal rooms in the middle of the night…oh God, he really was mad already. There was no ‘going mad’ for him, he was already there.

He’d have no choice but to do it. He sighed and pushed himself up with great effort and moved over to his writing desk. He sat down there and pulled out a fresh sheet of parchment and opened his ink bottle, picking up his pen with his other hand. He began to write a letter to Lisa but he paused on the first few words. How did one write a letter like this? He was no Libertine who often had to draft such documents, but here he was, at a loss for words entirely. He was a gentleman, or at least he liked to think so, and he had a hard time trying to put down onto the parchment what he felt while trying to take into account how gentle Lisa would handle his news. It was a hard balance, but he knew he would have to find a way. He didn’t want to come across as clinical or too besotted so that he sounded foolish or untrue. He just hoped she would understand.

A knock on the door distracted him from his letter, several hours after he’d attempted to start writing it. He allowed permission to the person to enter and Christoph stood just inside the door after he had opened it. Benedikt sighed and glanced over from where he was creating yet another draft of his letter to Lisa. Christoph had apparently noticed the balled up pieces of paper that Benedikt had discarded; Benedikt could see his curious look but he was far too well-mannered to make comment on them.

“What is it Christoph?” Benedikt asked, feeling more exhausted than he should considering he had woken up recently.

“I was just wondering if you’d like to have breakfast soon, sir. Or should we skip it altogether and wait until lunch?”

Benedikt didn’t feel hungry in the least. “Wait until lunch.”

“Very good sir. I shall not disturb you again then sir, unless you should need me.”

Benedikt nodded and Christoph excused himself, shutting the door behind him. Benedikt sighed and rubbed the bridge of the nose. At least focusing on Lisa had been a distraction from the mire of the rest of this thoughts. He scolded himself sharply internally and called himself an imbecile aloud.

How could he have wasted five very important questions on things so trivial and stupid? He should have asked something important, like how to kill a vampire! Or how to banish them from his life. Or where they were staying so that they could be hunted down and destroyed like the abominations that they were. Benedikt sighed. Killing a vampire could be quite useful, though he doubted he would ever find out how to go about it. Anyone he was bound to ask would think exactly what he did of himself, that he was mental. But how else could everything be explained?

He had been dreaming, he was sure of that, at least of the first part. The part that was suggestive and lewd and he blushed even thinking about it again. But he had woken up, he remembered that, though it felt as if it was foggy and distant. He remembered going over to the window and being frightened of the sudden appearance of the well-dressed gentleman from the other night, Mats, he’d called himself. And that was another thing, there really and been a murder several nights ago and he really had seen it. Then why hadn’t it been in the papers? Of course, he thought, how could you write up ‘vampire killed innocent human’ and not be laughed out of your employment? So likely the victim had just disappeared then. Benedikt sighed and his eyes lingered on the paper in front of him.

He could not marry Lisa now. He needed to be sure that he wasn’t going to be putting her in danger by wedding her, and also that he was _sane_ enough to do so. He didn’t want her to be trapped in a lifetime commitment with someone that was wading into a pool of derangement and fantasy. Maybe he was hallucinating everything and none of it was real? He hoped that was the case, though if it was, he’d be safer locked up somewhere.

Round and around his thoughts continued to wind as he composed letter after letter before he finally settled on one. It was almost lunchtime by the time he’d finished and he dressed himself without his butler’s assistance. He started downstairs and he must have appeared in quite the state because Maria stared at him as he descended. When she became aware that she was in his line of sight, she cleared he throat and went back about her duties without saying anything. Benedikt just happened to glance at himself in the mirror and he did look a sight. He was pale, withdrawn looking and he had shadows under his eyes. He looked exhausted and he could feel it as well.

Christoph wandered into the hall and Benedikt handed over the envelope that was addressed to his fiancee.

“Have this posted immediately and I will take luncheon in my study, but there is no need to make a big fuss of it all. A simple setting will do nicely.”

“As you wish, sir.” Christoph said, taking the letter and disappearing into the house. Benedikt moved over to his study where yesterday’s post had been waiting on him since it had arrived. He hadn’t read it with his previous occupations the day before and so he resigned himself to doing it now. He took his seat and settled in to doing his due diligence. He’d been occupied with it for a few moments when Maria entered into the room with a tray of tea and sandwiches.

“Thank you, Maria.” Benedikt replied and she curtsied politely before leaving him to his lunch and his work.

Around three in the afternoon, Christoph knocked on the door and Benedikt allowed him to enter. He had almost finished his stack of envelopes when he sighed and saw Christoph bringing in a fresh new parcel of them.

“The day’s post, sir.” He set it on the corner of the desk and turned to his employer. “Is there anything else I may do for you, sir?”

Benedikt sighed and leaned back, taking a small reprieve from his work. “Send round a note to Manuel. Ask him if he wants to go out for dinner this evening. I could use with the distraction.”

Christoph nodded. “Very good sir. I shall do it.”

“Thank you, Christoph. And have some fresh tea brought in, will you? Mine’s gone cold.” Benedikt added and Christoph turned to carry out Benedikt’s wishes. Benedikt continued to linger instead of returning back to his work. He found himself looking out of the window at the sky; the rain had _finally_ cleared off and left behind a few puffy white clouds to mar the blue sky overhead.

Maria brought in a fresh tray of tea and picked up the old one. “Pardon me, sir, but Mister Kramer told me to tell you that Mister Neuer had sent back his reply. The gentleman said he’d be delighted to meet you for dinner and said he’d come to collect you around seven thirty.”

Benedikt nodded. “Thank you, Maria. That’ll be fine.” He watched her leave before he leaned over and poured himself another cup of tea and settled into his routine of finishing his letters. Yes, an evening out with Manuel would be quite the thing to distract him from all the troubles he had. He sighed and decided to get back to work and even dig into the new correspondence that Christoph had brought him.

He worked throughout the afternoon and it wasn’t until the sun had begun to dip behind the buildings of his neighbors that he had finished his duties. He rubbed his eyes and stretched, standing as he did so since his backside had grown numb for sitting so still for so long. He moved over to the window and watched the sun dip below the horizon and the world was cast in shadow. He yawned and went over to check the time, it was just past six by a moment or two. I should really begin to get ready to go for Manuel and dinner, he thought as he turned away and went to pick up his ledger to put back on the shelf.

A knock sounded on his door and he glanced over his shoulder to see Christoph open it.

“I’m sorry to intrude, sir, but you have a gentleman here to see you. He did not bring a card.”

Benedikt frowned at the lack of a card since that was not entirely proper but he had always been an easy-going sort of fellow so he dismissed it.

“Did they give a name, Christoph?”

“Of course, my apologies. It’s a Mister Draxler for you. And he also declined to say why he wished to see you.”

Benedikt didn’t recognize the name but he supposed if their meeting would be quick he could take his time in getting ready. He had a few moments to spare anyway, so why not?

“Very well then, I’ll receive him in the drawing room.”

Christoph nodded before turning to leave and Benedikt followed him out. He wondered what this man could possibly want but he had no more than gotten to the hallway when the stranger, Draxler he presumed, was in front of him. He hadn’t even heard Christoph tell him where he would be or where to receive him at and yet the man had found it. There was also something _off_ about the man, but Benedikt didn’t comment on it. His heart sank when he had an idea what that ‘off’ feeling might be.

Benedikt noticed the way he was being watched by the boy and he interrupted before he could say anything so that he could spare Maria and Christoph and any other lingering servant from their curiosities.

“Ah, yes, well, shall we go to the drawing room?” Benedikt gestured to the open doorway and the boy kept his eyes on Benedikt but did move into the other room. Benedikt glanced to Christoph and gave a nod. “That will be all for now. I’ll ring for you when I need you again.”

Christoph looked apprehensive but left at the dismissal. Benedikt watched him go and picked up a silver candle holder after he removed the candle and slid it up his sleeve. He wouldn’t be unprepared if this Draxler person wanted to attack him. He then turned his attention back to the drawing room and closed the door behind him. Facing his guest once again, he noticed that they boy’s expression had not changed one bit.

He was watching him as if he’d seen a ghost, a vapor of a long-lost memory and the incredulousness of hope mixed in the boy’s eyes. There was a level of reverence and happiness that could not be contained and Benedikt did not have any idea whatsoever what the boy wanted from him or who he thought he was. But, sure enough, Benedikt’s suspicion was correct. This Draxler was a vampire, the light caught his eyes and they were reflected as a dark burgundy. Benedikt gripped the candlestick a little bit tighter as he looked over the boy.

He was taller than most, looked young, but Benedikt could only imagine how old he really was now that he knew his true nature. He was handsome for a man—were all vampires so attractive? Benedikt had yet to meet one that wasn’t—but his clothes were less fashionable than Mats’ had been. It was as if he’d dressed himself in perfectly adequate clothing, as if he didn’t really care so much about what he wore, but clearly his wardrobe was of a middle-class preference since they weren’t unfashionable or ill-fitting garments. He was also clean and didn’t appear to be dirty in any way, confirming Benedikt’s suspicion that at least he was a well-groomed vampire, if nothing else.

Something seemed to stir inside of him because he finally breathed out a few words and Benedikt frowned after he had spoken.

“So it’s true…you’re alive, Master.” He looked so happy, so hopeful that Benedikt was taken far aback.

“I’m not—what—master?” Benedikt watched the man move forward and knelt at Benedikt’s feet. He almost withdrew the candlestick from his sleeve, but he didn’t because the boy was kneeling in reverence to him. It was strange, very, very strange.

“I pledge myself to you again, Master. I will do anything you ask of me. I’m so happy you are alive,” he looked up at that and he did indeed look relieved as if a thousand years of troubles had left him. “I do not know how, but I am so very pleased.”

Benedikt thought his face was going to be pressed into a permanent frown. For a start, he was nobody’s master. He was an employer, certainly, but not even Christoph or Maria ever called him ‘master’. Secondly, the boy spoke with a funny accent that he couldn’t quite place which was odd because thirdly, the boy was speaking in perfect Latin and Benedikt could understand him. He had taken a course when he’d been in his studies many years ago at school. He’d never heard anyone speak the language with so precise yet so antiquated for the language. It was surreal.

“Um, well, thank you, I suppose.” Benedikt said, simply to say anything that would get the boy off of his knees. “However, I’m not in need of any more staff at the moment and—”

It could not have been any more as if Benedikt had slapped him and banished him. “You don’t…want…me?”

Benedikt’s frown slipped into an apologetic grimace as he watched the boy look even more confused and, worse, hurt. Terribly hurt as if Benedikt had added all those worries and anxieties back onto his shoulders tenfold. He couldn’t understand it.

“It’s not that, I’m sure you’re a lovely boy…?” He waited for the boy to fill in his first name.

“Julian!”

“Yes, of course, Julian.” It seemed to fit him quite well. “It’s not that I don’t want you, lad, it’s just that…well, I don’t think I am who you apparently think I am.” Benedikt had no idea why he was speaking in Latin but yet he was. And he must have been doing quite well at it because Julian rose from his knees and matched Benedikt for height.

“You’re my master, my creator. Benedictus of the Rhine, you’ve been lost to us for over a thousand years.” Julian frowned as if this was not the most obvious thing. “I have served you faithfully from the start, why do you not know me?” His demeanor changed entirely and he grew angry, eyes turning redder as he did. Benedikt gripped the candlestick tighter but did not withdraw it. He took a few steps back as Julian advanced on him.

“Are you an impostor? A ghoul summoned from Hell to torment me further? How can you not know who I am?” He looked lost and angry and hurt and Benedikt felt bad for him, but what could he do? He wasn’t this person, this Benedictus—wait.

“I am no impostor, nor am I a ghoul.” He said quickly. “That name,” he frowned, “what was it?”

“Benedictus.” Julian peered into his eyes. “How can you not know your own name?”

He’d heard it before. Benedictus. In his dream someone had said ‘come back to me, my Benedictus, awaken and come back to me.’ Had it been Julian? No, the voice was not the same, nor was it Mats. Who the hell had said that then? And why was he dreaming of this anyway? Was it true? Benedikt shook his head as the beginnings of a headache started to form.

“I’m sorry, Julian, but I’m not who you say I am.” He tried for an apologetic tone but the vampire was enraged and reached out for him. Benedikt started and the candlestick came from his sleeve as he raised it as if to strike and Julian jumped back and hissed as it made contact with his skin. He growled before looking up in shock and Benedikt could see the mark on his face where the candlestick holder had touched him. Benedikt didn’t think he’d actually hurt the boy, he hadn’t had enough force behind his swing to do that, yet that wasn’t even the injury he had anyway. It was a burn.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.” Benedikt apologized, though he wasn’t quite sure why, and he moved over to hold the vampire’s head in his hands and looked at the mark. Julian growled and Benedikt hesitated before touching him but Julian acquiesced after a moment and Benedikt moved to study the burn, which upon further inspection, it most certainly was. “I didn’t, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“I’m fine.” Julian said in a clipped manner and no sooner had he said it than the skin of his cheek began to heal before Benedikt’s very eyes. He couldn’t believe it. Julian pulled himself out of Benedikt’s hold and regarded him in a new way, the way a predator would eye up a potential rival. “How did you hold it?”

“Hold what? The candlestick?” Benedikt frowned again and looked at the object that had been discarded on the floor.

“The _silver_ ,” Julian clarified and Benedikt looked up in surprise. _Silver burns vampires. At last, a weakness._

Benedikt shrugged. “I don’t know, I just picked it up the way you normally would I guess.”

“It’s impossible.” Julian whispered more to himself but he moved closer and lightly touched Benedikt’s heartbeat. “I thought it was a trick, a disguise perhaps, but it’s true. They weren’t lying.”

“Who wasn’t lying?” Benedikt asked, feeling the coldness of Julian’s skin even through his shirt. He didn’t ask about what these people were lying about.

“Mats and Bastian. They said you didn’t remember and that you were human. I didn’t believe them, but it’s true.” Julian looked up on the last word as if it were an accusation, a crime that Benedikt had somehow committed without knowing he’d done so.

“And you’re absolutely certain that I am, in fact, your master?” Benedikt asked again and Julian nodded without delay. He didn’t believe him, but perhaps he could use it to his advantage. “So what does that mean? I’m in charge of you?”

Julian looked pained and Benedikt wanted to understand why so that he could stop hurting the boy this way. He didn’t know how to prevent something without knowing what it was he was doing wrong.

“You are my maker, not just my master. I pledged my loyalty to you forever when you made me. In return for my fidelity, you provided for me and made me your companion. We were inseparable, always.” Julian swallowed on the last word and Benedikt studied the vampire’s expressions before he pulled away to pace the room. “I am always honest with you and not deceitful. I pledged that to you as well.”

“What happens if you lie to me?”

“I burn on the inside and it is most unpleasant.” Julian grimaced and he did something that Benedikt noticed as well. Every time he paced, he would leave a wide berth between him and the fireplace. It was the same thing he did any time he came near anything even painted silver. _Fire is also somehow dangerous to them_ , Benedikt noted.

“Did I…enchant you in a way that would do that?” Benedikt asked, refocusing on Julian’s words.

“No. I did it to myself.” Julian sighed and sat on the sofa. Benedikt did feel a concern for him that he couldn’t explain and he moved over to sit in the armchair next to him. The boy did look very upset. “You should know all of these things, why don’t you remember?”

He looked up, almost heartbroken, at that and Benedikt felt his heart tug. “I don’t know, I’m sorry.” Then an idea occurred to Benedikt. “Julian…perhaps, perhaps we could test whether or not I am truly your master or not.”

Julian looked up and raised an eyebrow so Benedikt continued. “Try lying to me. If you are harmed the way you say, then we’ll know for sure. If you don’t, then we can go about our lives as if this never happened.”

Something told Benedikt that wasn’t going to be the case, even if he wasn’t in fact Julian’s master. Which he was positive he wasn’t. After all he was human and most definitely English, and he’d never once been to Germany, never mind _seen_ the Rhine.

“As you command, Benedictus.” Julian said and then sighed. Benedikt felt a little bad for making him risk hurting himself, but once Julian saw that there was no way that he was in fact his master, everything would be fine. “What would you like me to lie about?”

Benedikt paused for a moment. “Is Mats really as important as he thinks?”

Julian looked amused and started to tell the truth before he changed it. “Yes he is…I mean, no, no he isn’t. That doesn’t work, I’m not actually lying to you.”

Benedikt smiled a little and found he was enjoying the boy’s company, despite the oddity of the evening. Somewhere in the house the clock was striking, but he paid it no mind.

“Try to lie to me properly this time.” Benedikt said and made Julian smile before he cleared his expression to the serious one he’d had when he’d been worried that Benedikt was dismissing him. “What about…is fire dangerous to vampires?”

“No, it’s harmless.” Julian whispered before his expression twisted and he clutched at his stomach. He cried out in pain and Benedikt’s heart sank. So he was somehow this boy’s master. He didn’t even bother to think about that before he was moving into action with some urge to protect the boy from his pain.

“It’s all right,” he shushed and held the boy close, getting scratched in the process, “I know you didn’t mean it, it’s all right.” Benedikt pulled him into his arms and Julian went and he hoped that he was calming the boy in some way. “I forgive you, it’s all right. Stop this now.”

It took several moments but Julian finally did relax, but Benedikt didn’t let go of him. Julian didn’t especially seem to mind as he had gone limp in Benedikt’s embrace and they both breathed a little heavier from their exertions. Benedikt slowly ran his hand along the boy’s back and tried to figure out where this protective feeling was coming from. Julian seemed contented enough to stay close to his master, relieved that it was in fact his master again, despite their situation. Benedikt couldn’t get over how solid, yet cold Julian was.

“So why is fire dangerous then? Just because it burns or…?”

“It burns us, but not as bad as the sun’s light. We can still die, however, if left long enough.”

Benedikt nodded at Julian’s whispered words and continued to hold him. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you. I just thought that it would prove things, and well, I guess it did.”

“Just not the way you had hoped.” Julian said and there was some bitterness in his tone as he went rigid in Benedikt’s arms.

“I’m sorry. I just…things have been very odd for me lately. I’ve had a lot of weird dreams that I can’t explain, I’ve met three vampires that I also found out your species existed a few days ago. I’ve postponed my life and also found out in the midst of all of this that you’re my charge, at least in some capacity. I’m sorry if I’m a bit frazzled, but I’ve reached quite my limit on the scale of the absurd.” Benedikt sighed and was glad, at least, that it had been voiced aloud to someone.

“Four.”

“I’m sorry?”

“Four vampires. Me, Mats, Bastian, and Jack Wilshere.”

“Oh, for God’s sake, Bastian too.” Benedikt sighed as he remembered Julian mentioning him earlier. “That explains why he knew literature so well. He’s had all the time in the world to read it.”

Julian nodded slowly and sat up. He smoothed a few wrinkles in his shirt but it did little good since there were so many.

“I just don’t know what I’m going to do.” Benedikt sighed and slumped back into the sofa. Julian was quiet as well and the two sat in silence, broken only by the fireplace in the grate and the sound of Benedikt’s breathing. Julian stirred after a few moments and looked to Benedikt.

“Perhaps I could investigate for you, master, and find out what happened, perhaps?”

Benedikt raised an eyebrow at Julian. “I would like that,” he replied honestly. “And you’d report back to me your findings?”

“Of course, Benedictus.”

Benedikt smiled a little. “Please, call me Benedikt. And no more of this ‘master’ business. Just call me by my name.”

Julian nodded and rose from his seat. “As you wish mas—Benedikt. I should be going.”

Benedikt found himself disappointed by this announcement, yet he was even more curious now that Julian was going to look into the matter and hopefully find out what the hell was going on. He had decided to suspend his disbelief in the supernatural and embrace whatever oddities came his way. He really hoped this was just an elaborate prank pulled by Manuel and the rest of the lads, but he somehow doubted it. Besides, he’d seen Mats’ wings and no amount of science would be able to explain that without something odd going on.

“I wish you wouldn’t now that we’ve come to an arrangement.” Benedikt said and rose also.

Julian almost smiled, but he didn’t. “That may be, but you have your friend Manuel Neuer coming. He’s almost here and I don’t think you’d want to explain me just yet. Besides, you are human master, Benedikt, and I don’t want to do anything to compromise that and if I stay, well…I can only control my urges for so long and you’re bleeding…”

Benedikt hadn’t even registered the scratches of Julian’s long fingernails on his arms, but evidently the boy had since they were made and a few drops of blood had risen to the surface. By having drawn attention to the marks, Julian’s eyes had gone even more crimson and Benedikt swallowed hard. Best not tempt the beast any more than had already been done.

“Yes, well, go on then and find out what you can. And be careful, please, Julian.”

Julian nodded and gave Benedikt another once over as the knock sounded on the door. They both ignored Christoph answer it and Benedikt’s attention was held by the vampire.

“I am so very, very glad to see you again. Even if you do not remember who you truly are, master.” Julian whispered. “It’s been purgatory or worse without you for so long.”

Benedikt swallowed but didn’t get the chance to reply since he blinked and Julian had disappeared from his view. He looked around but he could already feel that Julian was gone. He felt as if he needed several hours, or perhaps a few days, to process what had just transpired, but there was no time for that as Christoph’s recognizable footsteps came to the door of the drawing room. Benedikt was in a daze as he heard him knock.

“Sir, Mister Neuer has arrived…”

Benedikt felt his head begin to spin but nothing stayed with him more than the look of devotion in Julian’s eyes just before he had left. Benedikt took a deep breath and went to answer the door.


	8. Inferno

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay another long chapter with more goodies in it >:DDDD Here, my friends, we have the introduction of our villain, but you'll have to read more to find out about who they are and their motives ;) Thank you to everyone who has read this and commented, I really love all of you. Please continue to read it since it makes me happy. Hopefully you all like it ^.^
> 
> Until the next edition ;)

The evening’s breeze stirred the deserted churchyard and caused the rusting bells in the tower to clang with eery tolls every so often when the wind caught them the right way. Across the empty graveyard, growth of the lawn had gotten out of control and some graves, the older ones, had even disappeared because they were covered with vines or shrubs that had not been tamed in decades. The cemetery was out of the way, on the south side of the river and far from the center of the city. It was decrepit and a forgotten place, which made it the perfect place for the coven to hide.

Mats woke from his rest a little before the sun had set and he roused himself inside the coffin before he pushed it open. The mausoleum that they had taken over was large enough for them to all fit without being crowded and still intact so that they could wander around without fear of being exposed to sunlight. As soon as he was back on his feet, he noticed that one of their number was already gone, despite the fact the sun had _just_ set.

Bastian was the second to wake, a moment after Mats noticed Julian was gone and Mats looked over to his friend.

“Don’t suppose you know where our bouncing baby boy has gone?”

Bastian shook his head but he closed his eyes and Mats knew that he was utilizing his particular gift of locating someone. This gift in particular made him a formidable hunter and Mats knew better than to ever cross him. Bastian could find anyone in the same city as him without ever moving from a spot. Often times, he liked to play in the mountains of their homeland in Romania and see how good he could be at locating someone in the mountains or over vast expanses of territory. Mats had never seen a more skilled hunter.

The blond sighed when he located Julian after a few seconds and opened his eyes. “He has gone to see Benedikt.”

Mats hissed and slammed his coffin lid shut out of anger. “I told him to stay away. At least until we knew for sure!”

Bastian watched their leader and remained quiet. He watched Mats pace the room and look upset.

“Perhaps it’s for the best? Maybe Benedikt will remember something.” Bastian finally said and Mats looked over at him.

“Or perhaps he won’t and Julian will have hurt himself more than even we realize. You know what he was like with Benedikt back then.”

Bastian nodded in agreement because he did remember. The two hardly ever left one another’s side and Benedikt was extremely protective and territorial over Julian. Not that the boy had any argument about it, he loved the dominance that Benedikt held over him and he loved being so valued by someone like Benedikt. They were a fearless pair, but they were the most human of all their coven. Benedikt would not stand for senseless violence against humanity and that was one of the reasons that he and Mats butted heads together all the time. Mats didn’t condone violence without purpose, but he also liked to play games with humans the way Thomas did; scare them and then finally consume their fear with their blood.

If Julian had gone to Benedikt now and Benedikt didn’t remember him, Bastian could only imagine how that would make him feel. Bereft and hopeless after all these years of waiting for a miracle. Bastian felt a large amount of sympathy for the boy he considered his younger brother.

“Shall I go and collect him then?” Bastian asked.

Mats thought about, his nostrils flaring as he tried to keep a check on his temper. “No. I will do it since I wish to have a word with him about obedience and how he has failed to comply to my charge of him.”

Bastian didn’t think that was going to end well, but he wasn’t going to argue with Mats either. Besides, the rest of them were rousing from their rests and were pushing back the lids of their coffins. Mats went to open the door of the mausoleum and looked at Philipp when the smaller vampire stepped out of his coffin.

“You’re in charge until I return. Keep everyone close, we will go hunt in the country tonight.” Mats didn’t wait for a reply before he stepped out of the tomb and stretched his wings and began to climb into the sky as he headed for Covent Garden.

Philipp came to stand next to Bastian at the mouth of their shelter as they both watched Mats fly high into the sky. The oldest vampire of their coven shook his head before he nodded to Bastian to seal the door again. He waited for Bastian to do so before they both walked back into the recesses of the tomb.

Telepathically, they had a conversation.

“He went to get Julian and I say he’ll punish him for leaving when he was told to stay.”

Philipp looked at Bastian and raised an eyebrow. “Then perhaps Mats shouldn’t have told Julian about Benedikt at all. He should have known that Julian would never be content to stay away from his master.”

“Mats doesn’t have the same bond as we do, you know that.” Bastian said and saw Philipp nod.

“That’s what happens when you don’t especially have a bond with your maker. Your ties of loyalty are not as strong to them and this is why we don’t carelessly go around making vampires.”

Bastian nodded and moved over to stand next to his own maker as Philipp smiled at him. Bastian thought he would have admired Philipp even if he had never created him as a vampire. Philipp was a good leader, strong but quiet. He didn’t need to be loud to command respect and he was a great fighter. He was quick and agile and even though he was smile, he was just as strong as Mats if not more so. He was the oldest of their kind, after the Master, and he was the Master’s firstborn. Therefore, he had the most loyalty to Pep.

The blond felt a pang when he thought about Pep. Their Master was lost to them just as much as Benedikt had been. He felt a stirring of hope inside of him. Perhaps, if they could find and bring Benedikt back as he had been into their fold then they could also bring Pep back to them as well and it would be like the old ways. But that was a dream and no more. Pep was dead, lost to time forever, and they would never find him.

Philipp saw the look of sadness on his progeny’s face and he moved over to give him a light hand on his shoulder. Bastian smiled slightly when Philipp had done so and he leaned down to nuzzle the smaller man’s neck before he kissed the skin there lightly. Philipp wasn’t only his maker, but was his chosen and bound partner as well. They had been together for almost two thousand years now; their bond was as strong as it had ever been.

Marco watched the two from where he remained sat in his coffin and he ran a hand through his mussed hair. He had had a pleasant rest, but he still felt as if he could lay there for another few hours. He’d heard Mats leave and could only imagine what Julian’s punishment would be for disobeying an order of such proportion. The last time Marco had broken a rule—leaving the nest unprotected for a few hours so he could go get a snack—Mats had almost killed him, honestly. Marco felt a hand slide up his back and he smiled while he looked over his shoulder. Mario was still laying down and Marco was more tempted than ever to join him again.

“We’ll be back.” He announced to no one in particular as he grinned and laid back down, pulling the lid of the coffin down with him as he started to kiss Mario once again.

Thomas rolled his eyes as he began to push all the other empty coffins to the side of the room so that they could have some space to walk without tripping over a wooden box. Once he had done so, he walked over and interrupted Philipp’s and Bastian’s moment and he looked at the two of them.

“Is it true, we have to stay here? I had sort of a date planned this evening…”

“For the time being, we must stay here.” Philipp said and Thomas’ shoulders slumped. “Don’t tell me, it was with your minister again?”

Thomas nodded and grinned slightly as he thought of the handsome priest that he was tempting in several different ways, none of them pure and chaste. “He calls me his incubus and says I’m going to be eternally damned, and yet, he doesn’t mind when I please him so. I think he’s going to burn as well.”

Bastian shook his head but felt more than a little amusement right along with Thomas. The boy was a demon to mess with, impish in all the ways he could possibly think of. Thomas had been turned when he was seventeen, therefore he had never physically aged past that, but while he still had the body of a young man, his mind was far more sharp and cunning than others were prepared for at times. He liked his mischief and he liked to play with his victims before he sucked them dry. He had a sadistic streak, but it wasn’t completely unchecked. He refused to drink from children and he especially reveled in feeding from peoples of society that were hypocritical in some way. Like the priest, for example. A strict speaker of how relations should be kept to the marriage bed, and yet he got along _very_ well with Thomas in his own private chamber after hours…

Philipp watched as Bastian and Thomas agreed to have a bout to practice their fighting skills and he settled himself to watch and in the meantime kept a sentry on the outside of the mausoleum to make sure they were safe.

* * *

Julian had just left Benedikt’s house, disappearing out a window as Benedikt blinked, and he took a deep breath. He had so many emotions going through him, not least of all was the lingering effect of the internal scalding he’d received when he’d lied to Benedikt. How could he be alive though? He’d been lost for centuries, and how was he human again?

He stood in a garden a few houses away in shadow and he looked to the sky before he closed his eyes to let the cool night air surround him. After long, long last he finally had some peace. Benedikt was alive, that was the most important thing. The rest were simply details that they could find out together. And Benedikt was still his master, regardless if he couldn’t remember and if he was human. Their bond was still there and Julian felt relieved. He had thought the man who he loved more than any other in this world had been lost to him forever and he would have to go through eternity without ever seeing him again. As the silver light of the moon shifted to cover him in its light, Julian felt at peace.

He heard a snarl though and his eyes came open as his senses heightened. He had only shifted back into the shadow of the abandoned house when he was shoved against the brick, caving it in partially, and a strong arm was pressed against his throat. He recognized the growl and the scent of the creature that was strongly keeping him in place.

“You think you can disobey me without consequence?” He growled in the language of the Germans. Julian could understand it, having spent his lonely years learning more about the growing world. Julian didn’t get the chance to answer Mats before he was flung across the garden, briefly moving through patches of moonlight before he landed at the base of a tree. Before he could get up, Mats was already there and was picking him up by his neck like a cat and hauled him through the shadows towards an empty shipyard by the river. Once they were far enough out of the way of any eavesdroppers, Mats threw him against the wall.

“You defied me. Blatantly! You didn’t listen.”

“I had to—”

“ _Silence_! I am your master now and you disobeyed me. I should kill you right now for doing so. You cannot just simply do whatever you wish whenever you wish it! You could have died! What use would you have been to anyone then?” Mats growled and kept Julian in his sights at all times. “He didn’t remember you either, did he?”

Julian swallowed hard and he shook his head. Mats sounded more triumphant at being right about that as he continued. “As I said he wouldn’t. So what have you go to show for your actions? You’ve probably scared him and told him God knows what to try and convince him otherwise and for what? What if he never becomes our Benedictus again? What if he never returns to being a vampire? You should have listened to me.”

“He’s still my master and he always will be. We confirmed it.” Julian whispered and kept his eyes lowered, though he did watch Mats from beneath his lashes.

“And how, pray, did you do that?” Mats looked as if he wasn’t going to believe a word Julian had to say.

“I lied to him. And it burned, the way it always does if I had lied before.” Julian looked up and the look on Mats face was astonished and priceless. Julian felt a smirk twitching on his lips but he tried to fight it. Mats could attack him mentally and he needed to be on his guard for it when it would come.

Mats began to pace, the way he would any time something was bothering him. He had been pacing a lot in the past few weeks. He appeared to have arrived at some conclusion because he rushed forward to Julian and held him by the throat.

“You mean to say that the true Benedikt lingers inside this pathetic human?”

Julian didn’t appreciate being manhandled. If his master was in his normal state, Mats never would have been able to get this close, never mind touch him this way. As such, Julian’s eyes darkened slightly as he tried to pry off Mats’ grip. The other vampire relented, but only enough to allow Julian a way to speak.

“He must somehow. Otherwise, I would not have felt anything when I lied.”

Mats threw him backwards a little and resumed his pacing. Julian pushed himself up onto his elbows and the urge to attack Mats was growing inside of him. He was a brute at times but he was far stronger than Julian and the younger vampire knew it. He did nothing as Mats growled after a few moments in frustration.

“Go back to the rest of the coven. I will deal with your insolence later.”

Julian stood from the floor and dusted himself off. He glared at Mats and straightened his shoulders.

“No.”

Mats raised an eyebrow as his jaw twitched. “What did you say?”

“I said no. You are not my master and you never have been. I will serve only him, or Pep, but not you. Not any more.” Julian braced himself for a mental onslaught but it didn’t come, though Mats temper was visibly rising.

“Pep is dead and your master cannot protect you. What if I were to kill him now, where would you be then?” Mats growled and Julian snarled in return.

“You would not. That would defeat every purpose you have in keeping us here and to protect him. You want him back as well, you just won’t admit it.”

“I’m trying to figure out what’s going on with him!” Mats roared and Julian felt the air around them crackle with static.

“I do not serve you. And if you think of harming my master, I’ll make sure the others find out about it and learn what you’ve done.”

Mats glared at Julian and he was backed into a proverbial corner because Julian knew if he lost respect with the rest of the coven then another vote would take place and all odds were in favor of Philipp becoming their leader once again. He had lost a vote a few hundred years ago to Mats, but it could be redone and if Mats betrayed Benedikt by killing him, a vote would be the least of his worries.

“Get out of my sight.” He said at last and Julian didn’t linger to see what he would do if he changed his mind. Julian disappeared into the shadows and started out of the shipyard. Where did he even begin to search for answers as to what had happened to Benedikt? It could wait. He didn’t trust Mats. He would keep an eye on Benedikt for the night to keep him safe, just in case.

* * *

Mats hated when rank was pulled on him, especially by one of the children of his coven. He’d heard Julian leave and felt his presence fade with him as he’d looked out the window of the building to the river beyond. The silver moonlight, finally a clear night after days without one, coated everything in its shimmer and it was even reflected in the Thames. He couldn’t argue with what Julian had said, technically he wasn’t nor would he be Julian’s master unless he had been given his fidelity. And Mats had never made him or requested it of him since he knew from the start that Julian was Benedictus’ boy through and through. Perhaps, looking back on it, he should have tried harder.

He sighed as he turned to walk out of the shipyard. He needed to feed but it could wait another night, or perhaps he could go before dawn. His irritation at not being able to keep Julian under control was wearing on him as he walked through the streets back in the vague direction of their cemetery. Julian’s words had stirred up something inside of him. The mention of Pep was something that always brought up some emotion from him.

Pep had been his master and his maker, and he had served him faithfully, but their relationship had never been especially strong. They did not have the bond of master and pupil, or of lovers, the way certain other members of his coven did: Philipp and Bastian, Benedikt and Julian, even Marco and Mario. The bond was even stronger if the maker was the same as the lover, and even more so if both had committed to a lifetime of being bound together as partners or companions for the rest of eternity. Mats had never known such a bond; he’d had his share of lovers throughout the years, but never one that he liked well enough to spend the rest of time with. He almost envied Benedikt and Philipp for that.

He tried to see things from Julian’s point of view. Surely, he and Benedikt had been bound in every way imaginable so it would make sense that Julian would disregard everything to get back to his lover. Mats didn’t like thinking of the two of them together in that way, but what else could they have been? Even the best of friends wouldn’t react that way, perhaps. Then again, Mats didn’t have that many close friendships. He trusted the members of his coven to a point, but he wouldn’t trust them implicitly, not even Marco. To be honest, he trusted Marco a little less ever since he’d picked up the youngest infant of their coven, Mario, a hundred years ago. Mats had seen over the centuries that there were only two things that you would ever put above your loyalty to your coven: a thirst for blood, and your life’s partner.

Times like these were when he wished that Pep had somehow managed to survive the attack that had taken him, Benedikt, and Robert to their deaths. Of all of them, Pep was the one that could keep order and things intact, but he had perished in the battle and he’d never been seen again. For a while, Mats had hoped—the way Julian must have over Benedikt—that Pep had survived somehow. But he’d never been found and they’d searched through the mountains over and over again and not even Bastian could have found him. With Bastian being unable to find him, he was assumed dead.

Benedikt and Robert had been defending the gateway towards their shelter when they’d both died when their attackers had surprised them. They’d both fallen into the ravine and had shattered amongst the rocks at the bottom. It had been a very bad day; the rest of the coven had been lucky to survive, somehow they had made it far enough into the mountain that they could escape through one of Thomas’ tunnel’s that he’d created. Luckily for them, as it was their only way out. A mob of humans had set fire to the forest surrounding the main entrance of their home and had they come out that way, they’d have perished in the flames.

Mats pushed aside the memories and tried to come up with a solution for the problem with Julian. It was good, at least in some way, that Benedikt, the real one, still lingered in the human form. Since that was the case, surely there would be a way to bring him back? Mats didn’t question himself on why he wanted to bring Benedikt back from the grave. That would lead to an entirely different set of feelings that he didn’t want to bring up, ever.

He paused on the street and tilted his head as a sudden aura came over him. A light chill went down his spine as if a ghostly hand had touched him and he shivered. Then the whisper came, floating in one ear before they surrounded him and the voices spoke to him in soft Latin. He recognized the wraiths for what they were and heard their words of warning. Mats didn’t wait for them to finish, he spread his wings and began to fly back to the graveyard as quickly as he could.

* * *

Philipp knew something was wrong a few seconds before the smoke began to fill the mausoleum. His sentries had warned him, the senses he possessed told him someone was coming, which was odd in and of itself because this was an abandoned graveyard and it was after dark. Unless it had been some kids up to mischief, which he knew otherwise when their intentions became known. He snarled and only had a few seconds to react before a fire had started. Whoever it was had thrown brambles and torches into the just-open door and the smoke began to fill the chamber.

“Marco, Mario, get up we have a problem.” Bastian told them as he and Thomas stopped fighting while Philipp went to as close to the fire as he dared to see who was behind this assault.

“Did you not sense them?” Thomas asked and Philipp shook his head.

“No! They were sheltered from me.” That was concerning because Philipp had expert senses. If whoever it was could shield their presence, then they were quite powerful indeed. The fire came closer to him and he was forced to withdraw; he could only see the resemblance of several figures in silhouette and he did not recognize them.

He snarled and turned back to the coven. Mario and Marco were holding onto one another, shirtless as they were, but Mario looked afraid. Thomas was looking for a way out through the back of the tomb and Bastian was watching Philipp and was very obviously waiting for instruction.

“Do we have any water here?” Philipp asked, hoping that if there was it wasn’t Holy Water.

“No, we’re in the dry part of the cemetery. The marshy ground is on the other end along with the ponds. Remember? Mats didn’t want to get his boots dirty.” Thomas said as he hopped from one closed coffin to the next.

Philipp rolled his eyes and sighed inwardly. He took a coffin and smashed it against the wall, removing the linens from inside it and threw one to Bastian.

“Try and smother the flames before they spread.” Philipp commanded and he knew it was a risk to their own safety, but better that then perish. Bastian reluctantly agreed and they attempted to smother the blaze. The figures in the doorway had gone, shutting the door and leaving them to burn alive.

Both he and Bastian tried to smother the blaze as Thomas attempted to find a way out and Mario and Marco stayed out of the way. The flames, despite their best efforts, continued to climb, and it began to catch some of the other coffins on fire. It only took a few moments before there were too many of them alight for Bastian and Philipp to do anything about it.

“In the middle, get away from the edges.” Philipp ordered as they grouped as he had suggested. He hoped there’d be a break in the fire so that they could get out the front, but that was where the flames were the highest. The heat became overwhelming and the entire tomb was filled with smoke. He still held some of the satin linen that had once covered the interior of a casket but it was now smudged and dark with fire singes all over it. Perhaps if they laid it down they could hop over to the other side. He only wished he had a thicker material that would actually do better about smothering a flame. It wasn’t the only thing he’d regret in his long life, he thought as the fire began to close in. He kept his eye on the edge and waited for a break in it to try and run, but none was coming.

“I sent a few wraiths to find Mats. Hopefully he gets them in time.” Thomas said, clutching tightly to Mario and Philipp nodded.

“Good thinking,” Bastian said in place of him as Thomas clutched tightly to his dearest friend. The roar of the fire was dwarfing out the rest of them and Philipp swallowed hard. He never wanted to die, but least of all by fire. It was the worst way. He thought he heard a growl come from outside but he couldn’t be sure since the flames were so close and were steadily coming closer. The coffins that they had been sleeping in were now swallowed by the orange embers and they only had moments left.

 

Mats threw aside one of the vampires guarding the door and snarled at the other one. He clawed his way towards him, glaring as he did so as he could feel the warmth coming from the mausoleum; he just hoped he wasn’t too late already. The one standing in front of the door, the final guard, smirked at him as he readied himself for a fight.

“Just a few more moments, Mats, and they will all have died.” He said teasingly and Mats lunged at him, growling as he did so. He used his weight to throw Lukasz back against the door, causing the vampire to cry out in pain as the fire had heated the large metal door to be blistering hot. He could hear the hiss of his skin as it burned.

“Get out of my way,” Mats growled and clawed at the other vampire’s skin.

“Open the door, save them, and finish our work.” Lukasz grinned and Mats didn’t understand what he meant. Why would opening the door finish them off? He frowned slightly and Lukasz laughed, just as Jakub called him from below where Mats had thrown him.

“Come on, Lukasz, Let’s go. We’ve done our job.”

Lukasz smirked at Mats before shoving the older vampire away and he jumped off the steps of the tomb and ran off with Jakub. Mats watched them go for a moment and was extremely tempted to follow after them and kill them, but he refocused to the tomb in front of him. ‘Open the door, save them, and finish our work’, Lukasz had said. Open the door and save them…Mats frowned, of course he wanted to save them, but Lukasz wouldn’t want them saved and he also wanted Mats dead…

Mats reached for the door handle but a loud cry from a familiar voice called out to him.

“Mats, stop!” Benedikt ran forward from the shadows and Mats didn’t have the time to question what the hell he was doing here. “Don’t open the door!”

“Why? They’re in there!” He growled and was about to brush off Benedikt’s concerns but the human, because Mats could recognize a heartbeat when he heard one, rushed forward. He panted, out of breath as the smoke began to roll out of the top of the mausoleum’s dirty windows.

“If you open it,” Benedikt breathed heavily, a stitch in his side from how fast he’d ran, “you’ll give the fire more oxygen. You’ll cause an—an—explosion.”

Mats’ eyes widened and he saw Julian leap to the roof from a tree and the young vampire threw a tree branch to bust the windows at the very top of the roof. Smoke poured out in huge billows and Julian busted as many windows as he could before he dropped back to the ground. He looked dirty, smudged from the smoke and ash, but Mats was glad to see he was alive at the least. Mats turned back to Benedikt.

“What do we do?”

“Get some water. By the time you’re back, the air will have circulated enough to open the door.” Benedikt leaned against the wall and both Mats and Julian rushed to the nearest pond, a hundred meters away. They moved quicker than Benedikt expected but it wasn’t long enough for the air to have moved. They started for the door and Benedikt called out again. “Give me those.” He gestured to the containers of water—a few vases from long-dead flowers, and a old military helmet—and started to dampen a cloth.

“You’re not going in there…” Mats protested as Benedikt soaked a piece of his now-ripped shirt in the water. He covered his face with it and tied it behind his head.

“Yes I am. Don’t stop me, just make sure you keep bringing back water.” Benedikt took the helmet and made sure his hands were covered as he judged the airflow from the top of the tomb. When it was low enough, he risked it and opened the door, throwing water ahead of him to smother the fire.

“Do as he says.” Mats growled to Julian as they created a relay team to keep water supplied to Benedikt. Mats was more than a little relieved when there was no explosion and it took a few agonizing seconds but Marco and Mario came out of the ashy billows, followed by Bastian and Thomas. Philipp was last out and Mats breathed a sigh of relief. Julian moved back to the top of the stairs and pulled Benedikt out by his hands as the roof of the mausoleum began to cave in from the extreme pressure and heat. Julian held his master close to his body as Benedikt looked covered in soot, about as much as Julian did. Mats ignored every instinct he’d ever had about Benedikt and pulled him into a hug.

Benedikt was surprised, as was everyone else, but he wearily patted Mats on the back.

“Thank you, for saving my family.” Mats muttered so hopefully only Benedikt could hear and the human nodded slowly as he began to slouch from exhaustion. Julian took him from Mats, though the older vampire was reluctant to let him go, and Julian held him close as the rest of the building began to crumble in front of them.

“Who was it?” Philipp asked after he made sure everyone was all right.

“Piszczek and his friend.” Mats muttered, keeping his eyes on the blaze. Anger seethed through him and he wanted answers and recompense for what almost had happened. “I will hunt them down and—”

“Do it tomorrow night. We need to find new shelter.” Bastian interrupted and Mats’ anger boiled but he agreed, but his fists remained clenched.

“I say, what the devil is going on?”

Mats turned at the newcomer’s strange voice and he raised an eyebrow. A well dressed gentleman appeared in the darkness, and Mats didn’t need to be an expert to figure out it was one of Benedikt’s friends. He was too poshly dressed and he was about as quiet as a rhinoceros crashing through brambles, even with the sound of a fire behind them.

“Who the hell are you?” He asked again, seeing Julian holding Benedikt. “Ben?”

Benedikt shook his head but stayed leaning into Julian’s body. He was more grateful that the boy was as solid as a rock. He could certainly use one of those right now.

“I’m fine, Manuel. These are, erm, some friends of mine.”

“And the comely gentleman holding you?”

“The dearest friend of them all,” Benedikt answered quickly and Mats raised an eyebrow as he noticed Julian beamed a little bit brighter. “His name is Julian.”

“There will be time for introductions later,” Philipp interrupted. “We need to find shelter and get cleaned up.”

Mats nodded and ignored the second human as he rounded the others up and started towards the east entrance of the cemetery. They followed without question, except for Julian and Benedikt and the one called Manuel.

“How about you stay at my place for the night? You can sort the rest out later.” Benedikt offered and Mats raised an eyebrow. Thomas, however, looked simply delighted.

“Are you inviting us in?” He grinned and Mats recognized that look in his eye. Julian must have told Benedikt a few things about vampires, or perhaps Benedikt wasn’t as ignorant as he played, maybe he’d remembered a few things—Mats hoped this was the case—but Benedikt spoke up and took a few sparks out of Thomas’ delight.

“Only if you promise to leave my servants, friends, and neighbors unharmed and behave yourselves. I have enough rooms for you all for a short stay.”

“You will steal the fun from me.” Thomas sulked but Bastian moved over towards Benedikt and bowed humbly.

“Thank you, Benedikt. You are as gracious as I remember.” He then rose and smiled and Benedikt looked away out of embarrassment. Manuel looked stricken and in shock from the conversation that had taken place in front of him and Bastian moved over to him. He must have looked a sight in singed clothes and soot-covered appearance. Hardly the sight of the well-dressed Duke that he’d met a few nights before. “Manuel, I promise we will explain all of this one day. But for now, would you be a dear and escort us to your friend’s home?”

Manuel nodded dumbly and started to do as he asked. Benedikt questioned whether or not Bastian had somehow enchanted him but he shook his head and gave Julian a small smile.

“Thank you.” Benedikt meant for letting him help but Julian’s only reply was to hug him close. He could feel Julian smelling his hair and it tickled; he then felt a small brush of lips against his cheek and something stirred inside Benedikt that reminded him of his dream. _Desire_.

“Thank _you_ for being yourself, master.” Julian whispered as the others started out of the cemetery, leaving behind their former quarters to sizzle and pop as the fire continued to go.

“Don’t call me that,” Benedikt said as Julian helped him walk out after the others.

Julian sighed but nodded his agreement. They had arrived too late for them to fit inside Manuel’s carriage, which was already a tight squeeze anyway. Five of them had piled into the coach while Thomas had taken up a spot next to the driver while Bastian was accompanying the footman on the rear of the carriage. Benedikt groaned as he realized they’d have to hire a cab, a fact he lamented since he hadn’t brought his purse with him. Julian raised an eyebrow.

“We’ll hire a cab,” Benedikt sighed and started to pull away to walk towards the nearest busy street.

“Why would you do that?” Thomas asked, tilting his head.

“We can’t fit there?” Benedikt looked up at the boy.

Julian smiled slightly and took a step back from Benedikt. “If you’ll allow me, mas—Benedikt, I have been working on something you were teaching me.”

Benedikt raised an eyebrow but watched as before his very eyes, Julian disappeared entirely and instead of where the tall boy had once stood, a large black stallion with burgundy eyes remained in his place. He wore no saddle or bridle, but Benedikt was too amazed to worry about how he was going to hang on to him. He pointed and stared in awe as the horse neighed and pawed at the street.

“Well, ride your boy and lets go.” Mario said as Marco smacked him for the innuendo. Benedikt blushed as the horse went to bite at Mario’s shirt. Mario glared at the horse and Benedikt shook his head as he carefully climbed up onto the horse. He stroked Julian’s neck and felt a silky coat under his hand.

“I apologize if I hurt you,” Benedikt told the horse to which the beast tossed his head and started forward as Mats pulled the carriage door shut.

Finally, they were on their way back to Covent Garden and Benedikt knew it would be a long ride, but knowing the fact that he was also sitting atop a person, or at least a vampire, was an entirely different experience. _Gives new meaning to the term riding someone,_ Benedikt thought lewdly and he held on to the dark hair of Julian’s mane as the horse continued to prance through the streets, instinctively knowing which way to go.

Halfway on the journey home, Benedikt leaned forward out of weariness and held to Julian’s neck as the repetitive movements of Julian’s hooves against the cobbled streets lulled him into a semi-restful slumber.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bonus trivia: the phenomenon that Benedikt was saving Mats from is called a 'backdraft' if anyone cares. They're very dangerous because they cause explosions. If you're curious, [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6CFt74ktBw) does a great job of explaining it, but if you don't wanna watch a video, there's always [a Wiki article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backdraft) to read.


	9. Deliberations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OH MY GOD IT'S BEEN A MONTH DDDDDDD:
> 
> If you care: So what happened was I had a wisdom tooth removed (ow), it is hot as balls, and I had to move and I also got a new job, and none of that is conducive to ficcing. Sooooooo here we go a month later, and I FINALLY have an update. Hope you like it! ~~sorry if it sucks!~~ I'm pleased with it :)

Julian transformed back into a human once arriving in Covent Garden and carried his master back into the house and directly up the stairs, ignoring of the chambermaid and the butler. He would leave one of the others to deal with altering their memories of who they were and why they were there. He climbed the stairs easily enough and entered the room that smelled the most like his master’s human scent and pushed the bedroom door closed with his boot. Benedikt hadn’t woken properly since they’d arrived and Julian had simply shushed him since he stirred once they had arrived before picking him up from the ground and carried him inside his house.

It was a nice place on a nice street, something ordinary for the middle class, Julian thought. It had probably three bedrooms, a fourth if you counted the small drawing room on the second floor, and everything was orderly and clean, despite an overabundance of servants. Benedikt seemed to keep a polite yet deferential staff on hand for himself and Julian wasn't surprised by that. His master had always favored simplicity, with the only requirement of any of his companions was to be that he was respected. It seemed that even without his memories, Benedictus still managed some common patterns of behavior. The thought made Julian happy because perhaps there would be a way to revive his master's memories and his old life somehow. He hadn't had much time to do some investigation into the subject, however, since the fire had happened and he'd rushed to Benedikt's side when he'd been summoned by his master.

Once inside the bedroom, he laid Benedikt out onto his own bed and Julian couldn’t help but watch him for a few moments. Benedikt’s arm rested over his belly and the other was parallel to his legs as he laid flat on his back. His eyelids were closed over his eyes and Julian smiled slightly at the sight of his master being asleep. He had never seen him this way before, since his master had never been human in his presence before. Julian found it amazing that his great leader, his hero and inspiration, was now so fragile and so utterly breakable. Julian couldn’t help but want to protect him from everything he could think of that may want to hurt him, especially Mats. The only distraction he had was the very, very present sound of Benedikt's heartbeat in the otherwise silent room. Not even the sounds throughout the rest of the house could tear Julian's mind from the fact that there was a warm, fresh body in front of him. He swallowed, licked his lips, and reminded himself that this wasn't just _any_ human and that Benedikt was far more precious than any amount of blood ever would be.

With the way that Benedikt was laid out on the bed, there was no room for Julian to join him comfortably and he wasn’t about to risk waking him up to move him. So Julian did the next best thing that would allow him to be close without disturbing his master: he pulled the chair at the desk across the floor and next to the bed and he made himself comfortable as he sat in it and reclined backwards, his ankles crossing as his legs stretched out in front of him.

Benedikt looked so completely peaceful and Julian smiled a little as he thought inside of his head towards his master, like he would have had a conversation with him had Benedikt been able to speak to him telepathically like the old days. Julian was too shy to have a conversation aloud when the rest of the coven would easily be able to hear him and he didn't want them to know that he was speaking to his master, knowing that Benedikt would never be able to hear him.

'Do you know what a wraith is? Of course _you_ do, but does your human self know? I don't think so.' He sighed and shifted slightly in the chair. 'It saddens me to know that all of our decades of research into the mysteries of this world you can't remember. I wonder if you'll ever remember anything about us before.'

Julian's thoughts lapsed there and he sat quietly for a few moments, his fingers steepled over his abdomen as he listened to Thomas and Bastian on the floor below argue over who should take a bath first. He looked back to Benedikt's face and resumed his dialogue.

'How did you survive? I hope we at least find that out since we truly thought you dead. If you can survive, then so can the master. He's been gone just as long as you. If you're alive, then maybe he is also. Though…I'm afraid we may have missed him. If he came back human, as you did, then what if we never ran across him and he never remembered who he really was? What if we'd never found you and you died all over again?' 

Julian sighed heavily at that, a heavy weight of emotion lodged inside of his chest somewhere near his heart as he thought about losing Benedikt again. He was uncomfortable, but not from the chair, from inside his very skin. He ached and he had a desperate urge to reach out and hug or touch Benedikt in some way just to glean some level of comfort from him again. He had such a strong urge to do so that he couldn't help it and did just that. Julian's fingers drifted along Benedikt's arm lightly and he could feel the warm skin twitch under his touch. He wanted to do more, but he didn't want the exhausted man to wake up so he pulled his hand back; the heavy weight in his chest only slightly lessened and he desperately needed more contact, but it could wait. He could wait.

He just hoped that Benedikt would wake up again soon.

* * *

Meanwhile downstairs, Mats was letting Philipp make an inventory of the house and the best places they could rest the following day without being burned by the sun. He had already taken care of the household staff problem, bending their minds to imply that they had always been expected and had simply arrived late to explain the hour of the night that they had come bursting through the door. He’d even arranged for a few baths to be drawn so that they could all get cleaned up and remove the soot from themselves. With these few errands accomplished or at least in route of being done, Mats let his temper simmer as he thought about how to get revenge on the two blond vampires that had almost killed his entire coven. He rested on arm on the mantelpiece as he stared up at the painting of a relative of the human Benedikt’s overhead. The family similarities were vague, but Mats could see Benedikt’s jawline and eyes in the portrait.

“Well, unfortunately for us, this house has a lot of windows, so there won’t be much moving around tomorrow.” Philipp’s voice broke Mats line of thought and he turned from the portrait to face his elder.

“Will there be enough room for us to rest though?”

“Yes. If the curtains are drawn and kept that way. A few will have to share, of course, but when has that ever been a problem?” He smiled slightly and Mats shook his head. It must be nice to have a life’s partner, he thought before stepping back from the fireless fireplace.

“I want those two bastards found.” Mats told him, venom seeping into every syllable. “They should be punished for what they almost got away with.”

Philipp shook his head. “I know you do, but we don’t even know why they were doing what they did.”

“Does it matter?!” Mats asked sharply, his tone getting louder. “I almost lost all of you because of them and it would have been my fault. I would have opened that door if it hadn’t been for Benedictus stopping me.”

“Benedikt.” Philipp corrected softly and Mats shook his head.

“It’s the same man, just in different form and centuries apart. It’s semantics. Don’t defer from my point.” Mats sighed in frustration. Despite his trying to ignore the others in the house, his sharp senses could tell that Thomas was upstairs on the third floor in the bathtub and was humming an old song he used to have Pep sing to him when he was the youngest of their coven. Mario and Marco were snuggled together on the bed they had claimed, having already bathed together, and were having another of their whispered conversations that could be sickeningly sweet. Julian was keeping watch over Benedikt— _of course he was_ , Mats wanted to roll his eyes and so he did at the thought of the pair of them together—and Bastian was waiting on his turn to take the bathtub over from Thomas. At least they were all safe, for now.

“I agree that their motives should be questioned, but not now when you’re in a temper.” Philipp spoke a little more firmly and Mats sighed in frustration.

“I’m going to be in a temper until they are found and interrogated!”

Philipp shook his head and remained silent, letting Mats alleviate some of his frustration. He took a seat and watched as the coven's leader paced the room. Philipp heard Bastian agree to shower with Thomas and he felt a slight twinge of jealousy before he promised himself that he would make Bastian repay Philipp for his infidelity with Thomas later, when they were perhaps alone. He pushed aside the sounds of them together in the bathtub and refocused on Mats in front of him.

The other vampire's temper must have worn itself down to at least some manageable degree because Mats ended up collapsing into the chair next to Philipp's and he let his hand prop up his head, though his fingers covered his eyes and he looked as tired as Benedikt had been. An unusual thing, considering that Mats was immortal and Benedikt was not.

"What I would like to know," Philipp started and Mats lowered his fingers just enough to glance at him, "is how Benedikt came to know of our situation and the approximate timing of it. It seems very… _curious_ …to me."

"Why 'curious'? Couldn't he have just had Julian tell him?"

"He could have done, and likely that's what happened. Although, Thomas said he sent the wraiths to _you_ , not to both you and Julian. So if that's the case, then how would Julian have known to tell Benedikt what sort of trouble we were in? Besides, even if Julian did know and did tell Benedikt and then they both decided to come help, let us just pretend that is how it came to be, how extra ordinary would it be for Benedikt to have arrived precisely at the moment that you would have opened that door and inadvertently killed us? Benedikt was truly in the right place at the exactly correct time and saved us. Isn't that curious?"

Philipp spoke and Mats' hand came down as he continued and by the time he had finished, Philipp saw that Mats was thinking very intently about the words he had just uttered. It was something to think about. How did he know? How had he arrived at the exact time when he would be needed most? It was almost too perfect.

"Let us ask him." Mats started to stand but Philipp lifted a hand.

" _Nein_ , he is too tired to be of much use now. He isn't capable of the stamina he once had at this time. Julian, however, could perhaps provide some insight?"

Mats nodded and even Philipp could hear the intensity of Mats' telepathic summons for the man two stories over their heads.

"Julian, get down here, _now_!"

It took a few moments, but Julian looked uncomfortable as he walked into the study. He lingered in the doorway and Philipp felt a small pang for him. Philipp could feel the unsettled feeling that lingered in him and he really truly felt bad for him. He knew what it was like to lose his master, but to find him again only for him to not remember anything about you or your previous life together…that was cruel.

"You summoned--"

"Yes. How is it that Benedikt became aware of our…plight this evening?" Mats, too impatient to let Julian finish his sentence, interrupted and looked expectantly at the boy.

Julian shrugged and shifted his weight on his feet. "I don't know. I returned to Benedikt's house to find him gone out with the gentleman so I went looking for him. Found both of them at a club off of Pall Mall and was content enough to just watch from a bit, make sure you weren't going to hurt him--" Julian only hesitated because Mats growled and looked even more impatient, Philipp simply looked curious about the last part, so Julian continued.

"But he must have seen me or something because he came running across the street to me. I thought he'd be mad but instead he grabbed my arm and told me when needed to get across the city to help you."

"And he knew exactly where we would be?" Mats asked, impatience changing to irritation and disbelief. "Don't lie to me!"

"I'm not!" Julian declared and felt his temper rise. "Gods be damned, Mats! I swear, he did exactly as I said and no more. He didn't know the address of the cemetery, but he described it well enough and knew generally the direction which it was. I didn't ask him how he came to know, I just took him at his word. Good thing I didn't ask him a bunch of stupid questions first otherwise everyone would be dead, wouldn't they?"

Julian was shouting by the end and Mats had risen from the chair and was making for him. Philipp was quick to get up but not quick enough to stop the stronger vampire from pinning Julian against a wall with his arm. Julian clawed at Mats' arm to free himself, but it was to no avail.

"Now listen here, you little shit--"

"Get off me!"

"I've had just about enough out of you, thinking you're better than me or thinking I'm not capable of leading this coven. If you think you're so much better than I am at running things, then ask for a vote. Otherwise, shut up and do as I say and maybe, just maybe, we'll be able to get your master back to his old self and you can be a happy little fucking bunny again. Until that happens, follow orders and keep your insubordinate comments to yourself, understand?"

Mats and Julian glared at one another until some silent agreement had been made between them. Philipp watched as Mats eventually let go of Julian and took a step back and the younger vampire left the room in an angry, bitter silence. Philipp made a promise to himself to go check on him before he laid down to rest for the day and looked at Mats and spoke quietly.

"You shouldn't have done that."

Mats stayed silent for a few moments before he sighed out, "I know."

He then turned around and faced Philipp. "I'm going to go back to the graveyard and rest there. I'll do an investigation when the sun's down."

There was no arguing with the determined look in his eye, and there'd been enough of that for one night anyhow, so Philipp nodded his agreement. Besides, more information would be appreciated about the circumstances of the events that transpired.

"Just send word if you need anything. And please be careful."

Mats nodded once and then left the house, his presence still lingered in the air even after he'd gone. Philipp shook his head at Mats' departure and then turned his attentions to the blond aristocrat that was Benedikt's friend who was lurking about in the house somewhere. He hadn't forgotten that there were several humans still lingering in the house besides Benedikt and he took a quick stock of where they all were. The maid was fussing over the state of the baths since she would need lots of hot water, Christoph was in the kitchens having his dinner with the rest of the servants, but Benedikt's aristocratic friend had found himself in Benedikt's parlor with a decanter of brandy and was waiting for something, though Philipp wasn't quite sure what. So he set about finding out as he started for the other room.

Once he stood in the doorway, Philipp used his best judgment while looking the other man over. Manuel had glanced up when Philipp opened the door and so Philipp could see the irritation and confusion mixing with curiosity but no ill will or malice in his expressions. He knew Mats would be mad by what he planned on doing, but Philipp could handle it if he had to deal with his younger's temper and all the fussing that had taken place earlier had annoyed Philipp just a little bit as well. He didn't have the patience of a saint, after all. Besides, he wanted answers of his own…

Giving what he hoped was a smile, Philipp advanced on the blond.

"Manuel, is it?" He saw Manuel nod and smile, relaxing when the other man did so also, "I tell you, how about you go home? You can get your rest and return to us tomorrow evening? I'm sure Benedikt would love to see you and go over the night's events?"

The confusion came to the forefront of his expression. "But the other bloke said--" Philipp simply raised an eyebrow and Manuel shook his head, deciding against finishing his statement since he finally had the escape he'd been waiting for. He set down the decanter and stood up. "Thanks…?"

"Philipp, if you like. Get your rest sir. I'm sure you'll need it." Philipp said and walked Manuel to the door. He made sure the man was given his coat to follow proper procedure by the butler and then Philipp watched Manuel leave. He looked to the butler to dismiss him when he noticed the young lad had a particularly odd expression on his face, a look that Philipp recognized having seen it before. He shook his head and filed the look of attraction that the Kramer boy had given Benedikt's friend and he cleared his throat. Coming to some of his senses, Christoph shut the door and went back into the recesses of the house to finish his interrupted supper.

Philipp shook his head and walked back into the study and looked around at the room. He didn't see anything that screamed 'I'm a clue, look at me' and he hadn't expected there to be something so blatant or obvious. Benedikt's study was exactly as Philipp could imagine a study of his old friend looking like if he'd become a settled human. It was orderly, apart from the desk which was organized in a way that Philipp was sure only Benedikt could understand and God forbid if it be touched or moved in any way. Philipp closed his eyes and let his gift of sight surround himself so that he could see this room and feel its memories.

He could see snips of time where Benedikt spent hours at the desk working on correspondence, or a few hours with a whiskey while staring into the fire. Another few evenings of him reading novel after novel by the firelight. Philipp noticed that Benedikt liked to look at the stars out the window from his desk a lot. Philipp tried to see further back but the scenery changed and it was no longer Benedikt that occupied the house; the warmth of the surroundings were gone as the house sat abandoned and empty for a few months, going further back a family had lived here. That's where Philipp stopped since there was no more interest he had in another family's livings here.

He sighed and returned to his present being and looked at all the books on the shelves. There were numerous volumes of different size and colors and bindings, but they all had been read. Philipp glanced at the titles and nothing stood out to him apart from Benedikt's obvious interest in science, philosophy, and rhetoric. _He is still the same at heart,_ Philipp thought and checked the shelves for any hidden trinkets or treasures that would be of any insight. He found nothing.

Shaking his head, he tried to connect telepathically with Julian in Benedikt's room. When he couldn't reach him, Philipp started out of the study and headed for the stairs. Quietly he entered the bedroom after arriving to the upper floor. He saw Julian sitting in the chair next to the bed and Benedikt was still fast asleep. Philipp smiled a little before speaking softly so that Julian could hear him, though his burgundy eyes were already fixed on Philipp.

"You should go on the…errand, your master set for you."

Julian's mind opened then and the telepathic connection was revived. Julian's voice entered Philipp's mind.

"How do you know about that?"

"I projected into the rooms and so I saw where he had told you to look into it."

Philipp and Julian watched one another levelly before Julian shifted in the chair. He spoke quietly.

"What about Mats?"

Philipp smiled slightly before having it fade like the sun had done earlier.

"Here is your master," Philipp gestured to Benedikt, "Mats has never been to you what Benedikt always was."

Julian smiled a little and then he grew concerned as he looked back to Benedikt.

"I will watch over him, and I will handle Mats. Your mission is to find out what we need or we will never know all of the mysteries in the shadows that surround us. Go now, you are in search of a very vital key." Philipp watched Julian and the young man nodded slowly, his eyes never leaving Benedikt before he turned and disappeared into the shadows. Philipp didn't need heightened senses to tell that he was gone, he could feel the boy's presence having faded as soon as the shadows had swallowed him whole.

Moving over to a chair, Philipp settled himself in for the little bit of the remainder of the night to act as Benedikt's sentry. He put his feet up on a footstool and smiled a little to himself as he delighted in thinking of all the ways that he would get Benedictus to repay him once all of this was over.

He looked at the window and watched as the world began to turn from black to a deep purple as the sun slowly began to rise.


	10. An Improbable Visitor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> UPDATE TIME. And teehee. I like this one. :D More soon!!!

The sun was half-risen when Benedikt opened his eyes again. He shifted in his bed and felt his body relax as he stretched out his muscles. He had been laying more on his side rather than on his back, but the upper portion of his arm had fallen asleep as he moved and the tingling sensation he now felt was unpleasant.

Benedikt rubbed his bicep as he glanced around his room. The curtains were open and a gentle breeze was blowing through them, the sheers shaded the floor from the morning sunlight that was streaming in through the open space. He frowned because he thought he was missing something, something really quite important, and he couldn't quite place it. He sat up slowly and noticed that the positioning of the chair, which was usually tucked neatly away at the writing table on the other side of the room, had been pushed up beside his bed. The indention from the carpet indicated that someone had been sitting there until they had pushed themselves up and moved out of the room.

Then Benedikt remembered Julian and the vampires and the rest of the events of the night before. He cursed as he sat up and tried to get out of bed, his arm still protesting the movement of the released nerves. Benedikt ignored the feeling and started to struggle his way into some clothes. It wasn't until he opened the doors to the armoire in this room that he nearly had a heart attack.

For a few moments, Benedikt simply stared into the crimson eyes of the occupant of his wardrobe and he tried to calm his thudding heartbeat. Philipp simply raised an eyebrow as the master of the house stared into his eyes.

"Good morning." He said finally in a jovially pleasant tone.

"Good morning," Benedikt said by way of polite response, the reaction one would say as if they were greeted on the street and simply had to say something for fear of being rude. When Benedikt realized this, he shook his head and became more cross in his speech. "Would you care to tell me what you're doing in there?"

"Well, I can't sit out there, now can I?" Philipp replied and his accent coated his words and it was almost enough to be pleasant that Benedikt would forget he was upset, but the amusement in his tone stroked the irritated sense that Benedikt felt about having someone in his personal belongings.

"The sun, I presume?"

"Indeed." Philipp replied and Benedikt shook his head.

"Where are all of the others?"

"Likely, not in the sun as well."

"I meant Julian? And Mats?" Benedikt wasn't sure why he added the leader of their group at the end.

"I'm not sure where your little one has run off to. He disappeared before the sun rose on the errand in which you had dispatched him before the events of last evening. Mats, well, he said he was going to be at the source of the crime to investigate this afternoon. I was thinking about joining him there at sun down."

Benedikt nodded and rubbed the back of his neck as he thought over what Philipp had just said. He couldn't say that he wasn't disappointed at the knowledge that Julian wasn't there and wouldn't be back for God only knew how long. He sighed and turned away from the wardrobe before he turned back.

"I don't suppose you'd hand me my dressing gown, would you?"

Philipp smiled a little as he shifted around. A moment later, he produced the garment and handed it over, along with a pair of trousers. Benedikt took both, relieved since he hadn't been wearing any trousers at all. Feeling exposed, he shut the wardrobe before he started to dress. He swore he heard Philipp's voice from behind the closed door as he left the room. He thought he heard the vampire call out 'I can still see you, you know' but he wasn't sure and he wasn't going to wait around to find out.

The morning passed in a surprisingly normal fashion. Benedikt found out that he had woken around a vaguely normal time in the nine o'clock hour. He had his breakfast in the morning room as he read the paper and enjoyed freshly brewed tea. He attempted to read the paper, but found his thoughts constantly straying. Every time there was a noise from upstairs, he wondered if it was a normal sound of a settling house or if one of his 'guests' had gotten into something that they shouldn't have. Benedikt hoped they weren’t overly nosey, not that he had anything to hide. He just didn't want anyone going through his things.

He retired back upstairs to change into a proper outfit for the day, prompting another awkward encounter with the vampire in his wardrobe. He changed quickly and let Christoph tell him the goings on of his staff and those next door. Christoph and Maria both seemed a little bit put out and not acting their normal selves. Benedikt wondered if one of the coven had enticed them a different way to change their perceptions, but he wasn't going to ask his staff to see what they knew and he didn't really want to interact with Philipp again any time soon.

Once his butler had shared the gossip, Benedikt went about his usual business of balancing the books and reading the post when it finally came. He had a small lunch and read through his correspondence. Finally, at about a quarter to two in the afternoon, he could hide in his rooms no longer. He had simply run out of things to do. So he got up and started outside to his back garden for some fresh air.

He wandered about the grounds for a while until he came to the wooden hand-carved bench that the family before him had placed under one of the trees near the back wall of the property. The garden wasn't overly large to begin with, but the illusion created by having hedgerows in a weaving pattern and a few small trees aided in making it appear bigger than it really was. Benedikt had no hand for earthwork though and he trusted the care of the greenery of his property to a gentleman that would come out once a week to make sure everything was properly maintained.

As he rested on the bench, Benedikt looked back to the house and thought it quite pleasant enough. Had he really been the devoted family man he thought he was, he would very much like to have stayed in town and raised a family here. But this part of London was fine for a man alone on his own, but the neighborhood was changing and it wasn't a place that a wife should be brought, nor should a family be started here. It's why the family before him had begun to let the house and had the intention of selling it.

Benedikt sighed and he felt bad about having postponed his wedding. Lisa was a good girl, but she definitely didn't need to be brought into this kind of life with vampires, at least not until Benedikt knew what their game was and how to get rid of them for good. She also didn't need to get attached to a house in London when she was a simple girl of a quiet, country inclination. She deserved better and Benedikt hoped she would find that.

He sighed and checked his pocket watch. It was a little after two now and he tried to speculate when the sun would be going down. He had every intention of going to join Mats in the graveyard, but with Julian gone, it would take longer to get over there and he kind of envied the way that the vampires could fly. He wasn't sure what that would feel like, but he would be lying if he said he wasn't curious as to how it would be.

* * *

His dark eyes looked into the darkness surrounding him. He knew precisely how much room inside of his coffin that he had to stretch out before he would make contact with the sides of the wooden box. He let out an unnecessary breath as he sighed heavily. Boredom and his personality did not mix well, and there was only so much recollection of the night before that he could do before it overtook him.

Lukasz and Kuba had returned from whence he'd sent them, and they had reported back. Unlike the results he expected, the coven of vampires under Mats' precious thumb had not perished in the fire.  
They had been warned and thus they had survived. But that wasn't the most curious part of information that he had heard last night.

Benedictus was alive.

At first, he hadn't believed his men when they had told him this, but after invading their minds and reading them himself, he could confirm that they were in fact telling the truth. Curiosity was overwhelming him as he longed to know how and why this had come to be. If it hadn't been for the fact that he was absolutely, without doubt certain that he had murdered the blond vampire millennia ago, he wouldn't believe that this was the same being.

It was curious and he was a beast when he was bored, but when he was curious? Well, then he was an absolute _monster_. He smiled to himself as he counted down the moments until the sun set. He would see for himself whether or not Benedictus was alive.

And, if Benedictus was in fact alive, well...that could easily be taken care of tonight as well.

He smiled to himself and waited for the sun to finally set.

* * *

Mats lingered in the doorway as he watched the shadows gather outside the still-smoldering ruins of the mausoleum. There was no real danger any more, the embers still lingered but the scent of charred wood and blackened marble was still very strong. He could only imagine the smell would worsen if it rained later and Mats really hoped he wouldn't be around for that.

He waited till the sun had dipped far enough that the shadows were more prominent and there was little to no risk of any sunlight actually touching him. Mats brushed a little bit of the dust off of his coat sleeve and began his investigation. He wasn't sure what he was looking for, but he figured something would eventually stand out when he spotted it. Julian's words about Benedikt suddenly changing his mind and needing to come check on the coven was too odd for him to ignore. That was another issue entirely, however, as the most important one that he needed to focus on was who Lukasz and Jakub were working for.

It wasn't that he thought they were necessarily working for someone, but it seemed odd that they would randomly decide to attack one of the oldest covens of their kind without provocation or cause. Somebody was pulling their strings and Mats had gone through ever single possibility he could think of who would want to attack their coven.

They didn't have many enemies any more since there were fewer vampires as the years continued to pass through the millenia. Mats had seen many friends, and enemies, come through his long life. Some losses were harder to take than others though, as losing his Master had proven the same night that Benedikt had died.

Mats sighed and resumed his silent observations of the graveyard. He stood with his hands on his hips as he rested where the mausoleum had been and the smoldering timbers still rested on the ground. He ignored the putrid smell and let his eyes scan over the ground and stone monuments that littered it. He remained in such an observational pose until he came alert at the sound of someone else moving through the tombs. Mats moved to hide behind a large stone angel and he kept his eyes on the general direction that the sound was coming from. It took a while but the shadows shifted and Mats recognized the blond head that popped up. He sighed and came out from behind the angel.

"Did anyone ever tell you that you make a lot of noise?"

Benedikt started at the suddenness of Mats' voice and he blinked before smiling slightly at the appearance of the vampire. He ran a hand through his hair, the scent of him caught on the wind and Mats' eyes darkened slightly as his throat began to burn, as Benedikt came to stand close to him. Mats thought he was too close, especially since he'd neglected to feed properly the night before with all the drama going on. "Sorry, I just wasn't sure where you'd be and I didn't think it would be a very good idea to sneak up on you."

"You are quite correct about that," Mats conceded before taking a step back. HIs thirst and frustration at the attack made his temper short, though, and he was sharp in tone when he spoke again. "What are you doing here?"

Benedikt blinked at the rudeness in his tone but he answered anyway. "I was looking for you. I thought you might need some help and I came to lend it." 

Mats raised an eyebrow. "And why would you want to help me?" 

Benedikt looked confused. "Why wouldn't I?" 

"If you knew the truth about me," he started and hoped Benedikt would change the topic of conversation. He's only a little disappointed but mostly unsurprised when Benedikt chooses to remain silent instead, "you wouldn't want to help me at all." 

"Why don't you tell me the truth, then?" Benedikt asked and Mats doesn't have to look over to see the raised eyebrow there. "Tell me why I shouldn't help you." 

Mats knew it was the moment to tell him at last. He should explain everything about their history and tell him the truth about everything, the past and why he didn't remember now. The tell-tell heartbeat that came from the man in front of him stopped Mats from doing just that. Benedikt was mortal now; if he knew what he had done before, before he had been born again into this living form, who would say he wouldn't descend into madness and resist anything to do with Mats? After all, he didn't have time to repair the psyche of a broken man. He had a coven of vampires to save... So he decided against it. 

"Let us just look for things now." Mats sighed and knew the moment had passed as Benedikt gave him only a cursory glance before refocusing on the scene in front of them. "

All right, what are you looking for?" 

Mats shook his head. "I don't know." 

They both shared a look at one another before Benedikt cleared his throat and then took a few steps away from him. "Okay. I'll...just look over here then." 

"Fine." 

They looked around in silence, Mats from his unmoving position and Benedikt from up close. They did not speak to one another, but Mats found himself looking at the blond human more than he would have liked. He was still angry about the attack in the first place, but it was simmering beneath the surface as he watched Benedikt. 

"What are you hoping to find?" Benedikt said after he had looked fruitlessly for several minutes. He put his hands on his hips as he looked back to Mats. "A giant sign that says 'I did it'?"

Mats rolled his eyes. "Don't be such a mortal."

"I'm sorry, it really isn't as if I can help it since I am one, you know." Benedikt rolled his eyes and Mats felt just irritated enough that he didn't stop himself before he spoke.

"No you aren't, that's the problem." He turned to walk away and Benedikt called out to him.

"What does that mean? I'm not this bloke you all seem to think I am. My name is Benedikt Höwedes and I was born in this country to an Englishwoman and a German father thirty years ago."

Mats pursed his lips as he walked over the granite slabs laid into the grass. "What do you know of your father?"

Benedikt sighed. "He was a good man but he left Germany because of the Revolts. I don't quite know why he picked England, but regardless, he met my mother and here I am."

"Yes. Here you are."

Mats had continued to walk around the graveyard and he turned sharply when he heard the third voice. If he had a heart, it would have stopped cold when he saw who it was.

"It can't be--" He knew his mouth was gaping and open, but he couldn't help it. He could stretch his mind to believe that one could possibly come back from the dead, but _two_?

Benedikt raised an eyebrow as he looked at the newcomer so he missed Mats' shock entirely. The man looked familiar, as if he'd seen him somewhere before, but he couldn't quite say where. He kept his eyes on the man--well, vampire if the red eyes were anything to go by--as he circled around Benedikt's figure. He had the acute feeling of knowing that he was being eyed-up and he didn't like it all. At least Mats wasn't going to hurt him, most of the time, Benedikt thought. He couldn't say the same about this one.

Before he could speak, a quip forming on his tongue, Mats was directly beside him, eyes narrowed as he stared at the intruder.

"What are you doing here?" He hissed.

"I came to see for myself if the rumors were true...or perhaps you meant to ask, what am I doing alive?"

Benedikt listened to them speak in Latin and he watched them size one another up.

"Both."

"Well," the dark-haired stranger said as he walked in a circle around both of them. Mats moved instinctively closer to Benedikt. "I will not answer your second question because perhaps dear Benedictus can surely tell you the answer as well? For he and I both are alive as we should not be, according to you. As for what am I doing _here_ , well, I came to see if Lukasz and Jakub really had seen him or if they were perhaps seeing a specter."

"You're the one who sent them...why would you do that?!"

"Ah, is this the part where I tell you my evil plan and we fight because you're going to try to stop me?" He smiled, showing his fangs. "I don't think so Mats. Just know this, I will destroy you and your coven. And I will take great, great pleasure in doing so."

"What did we ever do to you?" Mats asked incredulously, making sure to keep his body between Benedikt's and the other vampire's at all times. Overhead a rumble of thunder came from a distance and temporarily covered up the sound of the Thames flowing beside the graveyard. 

The other vampire's eyes darkened to scarlet and a sneer spread across his face. "Enough." He took a glance at Benedikt and then he lunged for him, Mats anticipating the move and threw his body in the way. Benedikt stumbled backwards as the two vampires collided and he went down to his backside as the two began to fight.

The thunder grew more frequent as Mats snarled and shoved the vampire back and stood over him only to have the one on the ground kick Mats' legs from underneath him and he pressed Mats into the ground. Benedikt blinked and hoped that Mats would recover enough. If so inclined, the stranger could come after him now. Feeling defenseless, he looked for a weapon but came up empty.

"You will pay for the sins of our father." The stranger whispered to Mats as they stared at one another. "I promise you that. And as for your precious coven, they will die. You will watch them do so and there won't be anything you can do to save them. And when, at last, I've had my fill of their blood, when at last you think I will grant you mercy and kill you, I won't. You will live with the wretchedness of your soul and be damned to this purgatory for the rest of your miserable, pathetic existence."

Mats swallowed hard and wanted to push him off but his arms were pinned under the other vampire's knees.

"Go to hell Robert."

Robert smiled slightly. "Didn't you know? I've already been there and have come back."

He laughed and Benedikt felt shivers go down his spine. Robert spared a glance over his shoulder at him and Benedikt saw the scarlet eyes and the fangs before he simply vanished right in front of Benedikt's and Mats' eyes.

"Who--?"

Benedikt didn't get the chance to say more than that because Robert reappeared right behind him and with no warning, Benedikt cried out as the sharp sting of fangs sank into his neck.


	11. The Devil Within

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another update? So soon? Am I ill? Na, I just had fic inspiration ;)  
> This chapter I'm not 100% satisfied with, but my evil plot bunnies won't go away. I hope you enjoy it. And thank you to everyone who reads this story, I'm glad you continue to do so. I really hope you like it! :D

_Rome, 25 December 800 AD_

“I thought they said the days of the great Empire were over...and yet we have a new emperor.”

Benedictus smiled a little at the voice who spoke as he watched the festivities below. He didn’t look away from over the rail as both he and his partner watched the humans celebrate the coronation of the great King, and now the Emperor of what used to be the western half of the Roman Empire. He rose from where he’d been leaning and straightened his posture. He nodded without looking at his apprentice.

“I don’t think Irene of Athens nor her people will take this insult lightly.” He said ruefully and watched as the crowd below parted so that more wood for the bonfires could be brought into the middle of the basilica. 

“Do you think they will bring about another war, Master?”

Benedictus thought about it for a moment before he shook his head. “No. The days of Rome are truly over; there will be no great Empire again. This is all just…” He waved his hand over the crowd as he thought of the word he wanted to use. “Consolidation.”

Julian nodded slowly and an orange glow chased away the shadows as the bonfire was renewed. The times had changed when the might of Rome had once been great and the very mention of the name would pause even the most bloodthirsty of challengers. It had been lost to the world of shadows but pretenders attempted to create it all over again, only to fail time and time again. The empire had grown too large to maintain and it had collapsed, leaving broken pieces and parts to be repaired in its wake.

Until now.

The basilica loomed in the shadows overhead, the steeple of the tallest tower was hidden in the night’s dark sky. Julian stretched and he looked at the sky to see the positioning of the moon. It was half full, or just a little shy of being so, and it was already past the halfway mark.

“Have you had your fill of Rome, Julian?” Benedictus asked, turning to face him at last.

“If you have, then I have also, my Master.” Julian replied simply and Benedictus smiled slightly. He moved closer and rested his hand on Julian’s shoulder.

“If you would like to stay, you must only say so.”

Julian nodded slowly, lowering his eyes to avoid Benedictus' out of shyness. Eight hundred years together and Julian was still shy around him at times, Benedictus felt a lightness in his belly when he thought of how precious Julian could be.

“So what is it to be?”

“We can go.” Julian said at last and Benedictus nodded once, then smiled, leaning forward to kiss Julian’s cheek. It started there before Benedictus' lips moved to cover Julian’s own. They shared a moment before Benedictus pulled apart, making sure to keep an arm around Julian’s body as he did so.

“We will head north. Pisa, I think.” Benedictus announced, moving further into the shadows to make the transition more hidden from any passers-by.

“Not Genoa?” Julian asked with a curious tilt to his head. The apprentice knew that his master favored the northern town more than its counterpart, simply because of the fact it was smaller but more secure than Pisa could be. It was easier to hide and go unseen.

Benedictus smiled at Julian’s curiosity. “Not this time, I don’t think we will make it that far before the dawn comes.”

Julian frowned more. “I can fly quickly, Master, and I know you can also, so I don’t see why--?” He stopped speaking when Benedictus placed a finger over his lips. His Master then lowered his head and kissed him again, making Julian sigh happily in delight.

“You will leave from this place and head to Pisa where I will meet you there before the sun rises.” Benedictus murmured against his lips and Julian nodded before speaking telepathically.

“Meet me there? You’re not leaving with me?”

Benedictus shook his head and kissed Julian’s temple. “I will be just behind you. I have one last matter to complete here before we leave Rome and I expect it will be many centuries before we have to return to this forsaken place.”

Julian nodded, delighted because he wasn’t overly fond of the once-great throne of power either. He pushed aside his disdain for having his master remain behind and kissed him again. Benedictus was all too happy to comply before they separated.

“Then I will see you in the north, my Master.”

Benedictus nodded once and squeezed Julian’s shoulder before letting the boy make his transition so that he could leave. Due to their shared connection, Benedictus added. “Find us a good place to rest away from people. I intend to enjoy the solitude with you later.”

Benedictus grinned when he saw Julian’s cheeks redden before they were covered in fur as he transitioned entirely into the form of a bat. Benedictus watched as his young apprentice began to climb upwards into the rafters of the basilica’s archway at first before he dipped underneath the arch and started into the inky blackness of the sky. Benedictus watched until he was no longer in sight before he set about finding the real reason he had chosen to remain behind.

He looked away from the overcrowded steps below from where the bonfires were lit and crossed the open expanse of floor until he was looking at the even more crowded courtyard below. The new emperor Charlemagne had been here last, when Benedictus had looked for him, but now he was no longer in sight. Where he had gone, Benedictus didn’t particularly care, only that the crowd of supporters and the new subjects of the empire were still there to be a distraction and a menace to anyone trying to travel inside of the ancient square.

Shaking his head, Benedictus glanced at the second floor across the expanse of bodies and tried to spot who he was looking for. It only took a moment, but he saw a shadow move in one of the windows on the third floor of the basilica. Knowing it would not be easy for a human to make their way up there, especially with so many other people in the way, Benedictus knew he had found his man. He started in that direction after he jumped on the roof to make his way unhindered.

He leapt from the roof onto the stoneface side of the wall and began to climb upwards and moved through the window so that he landed inside the window near where the shadow had moved. Benedictus saw it move again and he smiled in greeting to his brother.

“Robert, it’s good to see you.”

The dark-haired vampire nodded once in only the barest inclination of his head before he moved so that the glimmer of the bonfire in the distance showed upon his face. Of all the brothers of the coven, Robert liked fire the least.

“You do not seem surprised to see me.” Robert replied simply and Benedictus shook his head.

“No, Pep said he would send someone with the information.” Benedictus replied and looked at the square below. There was one particular reveller who was more into his cups than anyone else.

“Curious that he would send me then, don’t you think?” Robert asked quietly and Benedictus glanced over.

“Why do you say that?” He raised an eyebrow.

Robert leaned against the frame of the window next to Benedictus and looked at him, instead of the humans below.

“Well, think of it. The Master didn’t even want your apprentice to know. And you know that he thinks of Julian as…” Robert paused, trying to think of a word.

“As?”

“I am torn between the idea of ‘grandson’ or ‘son-in-law’.” Robert replied with amusement and Benedictus scoffed and lightly shoved him from the sill of the window. “Fine, grandson it is.”

“A very incestuous family we have, then.”

“Indeed.” Robert replied, though his tone changed from amused to something darker and Benedictus filed that away to study later. “Nevertheless, if Pep didn’t want your own apprentice knowing of this, then what does that say about the information I have for you?”

“It means, Robert, that Pep knows we have an unhappy dissenter in our coven and he doesn’t know who, though he thinks for some strange reason, it might be Julian. Though I have the utmost faith that it is not.” Benedictus shook his head and pursed his lips a little as he looked back out at the crowd.

“It is true,” Robert started, “Julian is by far more loyal to you than any other I have known.”

Benedictus nodded. “He is a true and loyal servant to our family, more so than almost any other.”

“I think it is _you_ that holds his loyalty, more than our family.” Robert amended and Benedictus wanted to disagree, but he didn’t. Perhaps Robert was onto something. Oh well; he and Julian could discuss this at another time.

“Perhaps.”

They lapsed into quiet for a while before Robert was the one to break it. He had been looking over Benedictus' shoulder at the crowd below, particularly the loud man in the throng of people.

“Look at them, Benedictus. See their unbridled joy and happiness?”

Benedictus nodded, a half-smile on his face. “Isn’t it something? To be so full of life, so happy?”

Robert kept his voice soft. “It is something. And you would protect them to the ends of the earth, would you not?”

Benedictus nodded. “We should be able to be cohabitants with them. To live amongst them without detection or fear if we are. They are an understanding sort, forgiving. You know my lectures on the issue.”

He had often spoken to the coven over the centuries to get them to change their minds on the vote that they had made at their hideaway in the Carpathians. Mats had never once changed his mind about living separately from them. In fact, he was more prone to travel away from humanity if they dared venture close. It was only the fact that he needed to feed in order to survive that kept him within a couple days’ travel of the species that kept him from truly disappearing off the face of the planet. Philipp had come around to Benedictus' way of thinking but nothing would ever convince Mats or Marco that things needed to change. Pep would not force them and so it remained that they continued to live as they had always done, hiding in shadows.

Although, Benedictus had moved to be separate from the coven in the last century and a half. Both he and Julian had gone travelling about the continent, in the ruins of the Roman Empire to find and test the theory that humanity and vampires could live together. It was working well enough, though it wasn’t exactly as if he or his apprentice had come out and announced what they were. So far none of the humans had discovered the truth and Benedictus was drawing up a report to present back to the rest of the coven, specifically Mats, to prove that it would be possible for them to live together.

“I know them, yes.” Robert replied quietly and kept his eyes on the humans below. “Your--experiment--with them, it goes well, does it not?”

Benedictus nodded. “I think in another decade or so, once we see how well Charlemagne is doing with his united kingdom, is the time I will present the matter to everyone.”

Robert nodded slowly. “Who do you think our dissenter is?”

Benedictus pressed his lips together. Someone, he wasn’t sure who and he would never dream of making a false accusation against one of the coven, had been sabotaging them from the inside. Trying to lead humans back to their hidden fortress in the mountains, carving holes to let sunlight in if they went out into the forest, using specters and wraiths to give warnings only for them to be led into a trap…One of the coven was trying to get them all killed or at the very least trying to get them to turn on one another and it wasn’t making Benedictus feel very confident at all.

“I will not make a false accusation and I cannot say.” He replied honestly before adding, “I have my suspicions. Now, about this information that Pep wanted you to deliver to me?”

Benedictus looked over his shoulder now that Robert was standing directly behind him and Robert nodded once, keeping his eyes on the humans below.

“Oh, yes. I had almost forgotten.” Robert rested his hand on Benedictus' shoulder. “May I connect with you so you can see it?”

Benedictus nodded and let Robert into his mind enough to share the connection of telepathy. Robert didn’t waste much time as he took advantage of the situation and entered into Benedictus' consciousness. His voice carried over the images of the fortress deep in the mountains as he showed the gate that was open and the eerie creak of it as he floated past.

‘I went to the Master as I was summoned to do and he intended to banish me from the mountains,’ Robert continued as the images carried as he climbed the stairs in the mountain and entered the room where Pep would normally have sat upon the ancient throne. ‘He would have sent me away and shown me mercy. But I would not go quietly into the dark.’

Benedictus frowned as he watched the images in his head; the hand on his shoulder tightened in grip as Robert continued. ‘The Master is dead by my hand. I am the one who would have all of you burned.’ Benedictus tried to pull away but Robert held him in place.

‘Why would you do this?’ Benedictus asked, refusing to believe that Pep was dead.

‘Because all of you have deserved it.’ Robert then showed the sight of him taking a silver-tipped stake and plunging it through the middle of Pep’s heart. Benedictus cried out in sorrow and tried to shove Robert away but Robert pressed a similar weapon to the skin of Benedictus' back and it burned him. ‘But you, Benedictus, I liked you the most. Why couldn’t you set aside this foolish notion of existing with an inferior species? I liked you most, just until you would have us live with them. Those primal, pathetic little apes and you would have us mix with them.’

‘We are the same, we used to be like them once...’ Benedictus tried but Robert pressed the stake a little closer, making Benedictus hiss from the burning.

‘I was _never_ that malleable! I have always been more than _that_. Can’t you see what will become of us? We will be watered down to their level of stupidity and complacency and you would love it if we could become so inconsequentially pathetic.’ Robert’s rage seethed through and he showed Pep dying over and over again and Benedictus tried to get a good amount of leverage to throw Robert back, but he was trapped between the strength of Robert’s body pressing him into the ledge of the window. The silver stake also kept him in place as it continued to sear into his flesh. ‘Benedictus, oh Benedictus, I’m sorry but you cannot survive. With Pep gone, the coven will rally to avenge him and if you survive, then you know what I’ve done and I cannot let you stay. It’s a shame. I truly could have loved you.’

‘We could work something out,’ Benedictus started, thinking of his family. ‘I would speak for you...’

‘They will not listen and you know it. I will be burned in the sun for my crimes if not worse. Mats will see to it himself if no one else will.’ Robert rested his head against Benedictus' neck and his lips lightly grazed the faded puncture wound from a thousand lifetimes ago that rested on his neck. Benedictus shuddered at the intimacy of the gesture and kept looking to the sky, hoping that Julian had not picked up on his distress. He thought he was doing well enough to hide it and hoped that the boy would get to Pisa and stay there.

The knowledge of what Julian would think when he would find out was something that Benedictus wasn’t going to think about right now. He was going to fight Robert but from the positioning and the fact he was cornered, Benedictus knew he may not prevail. The grief of the loss of his own Master was something he could feel settling in his heart and he was trying to maintain a level head. Logic and rationale would determine the course of events, not hot-headedness and passion. 

‘Your boy will never know of these events, not the truth of them, anyway.’ Robert promised, picking up on Benedictus' trail of thought. ‘I promise you that.’

‘You will not harm him.’ Benedictus replied sharply, a protective surge rising up within him.

‘You won’t be here to stop me if I do.’ Robert replied, stating the obvious as he trailed the silver tip along Benedictus' back, making a pattern and making the blond vampire shift in pain. Benedictus hated the sound of lightness, amusement, in his voice.

‘As you said, if he does not know the truth, then there is no need to harm him. And I will kill you someway before you lay a hand on him.’ Robert laughed a little. 

‘So protective, but it is useless Benedictus. The entire coven is to die, I’m just starting with the two most humanitarian of all of you. You would stand in my way.’ Robert’s grip tightened on Benedictus' shoulder. Already, Benedictus was attempting to cast a charm in his mind. The effort to shield the charm from Robert and his distress from Julian was taking its toll and he knew the strength would fail him soon.

‘Goodbye Benedictus.’ Robert didn’t give Benedictus a further chance to protest before he shoved the stake into where Benedictus' heart would be if it still beat. Robert couldn’t see his face, but all that was there was the painful knowledge of failure for both himself, for Julian, and for the coven, as his body began to trail away into ashes. He didn’t even have enough time to send a wraith for warning.

With careful fingers, Robert gingerly poured some holy water onto the pile of dust as it rested at his feet before he tossed away the vial that contained them. He was extremely careful not to burn himself with the liquid before he tossed the stake into the crowd below and it was quick to disappear. Robert ran the toe of his boot through the pile of ashes, scattering them to the wind and mixing them with the rest of the dirt and dust that was on the ledge of the window. He felt only a moment’s bit of remorse for having killed his friend but he pushed it aside.

This was only the beginning and he had much more work to do before he could rest for the night. He’d travelled so far in such a short amount of time, but there was more to go. He had to get out of Rome and get as far away from those damned mountains before Mats and the others realized what he had done. He closed his eyes and fixated on a point even more westerly of Rome and let his magic take over to transport him there. He would be exhausted by the time he arrived in Barcelona, but there he would rest until he would have the energy to return to his plan.

* * *

Meanwhile, flying overhead near the coastal city of Tarquinia, Julian found himself dropping quickly and inexplicably from the sky. It wasn’t until he had crash-landed in a field and reformed as his normal form before the confusion faded under the full weight of loss as he felt an absence strike him. The ocean rumbled in the distance and Julian struck the ground hard with his fists as he collapsed onto it.

He had never felt pain like this before and he couldn’t explain it. He could only lay on the ground in indescribable agony as wave after wave of misery and anguish washed over him. He tried to call out to Benedictus to see if he could explain what was happening to him but for the first time in his entire existence, he felt nothing. An emptiness lingered inside of him and he had no idea why that was the case.

As the feeling continued and he received silence from Benedictus' connection, he reached out to the nearest friend that he and his Master both had. Pep. Only, just as before, there was nothing. Frowning, Julian tried someone else, Philipp and this time, even over the hundreds of miles that separated them, Philipp answered him.

‘What is it?’ The older vampire asked.

‘Something’s wrong. I can’t reach Benedictus or Pep. It’s never been silent this way before.’ Julian wasn’t panicking, per se, but he definitely wasn’t calm either. ‘I can’t move. It feels as if truly a ton of stones had been placed on my body. Everything is sore and it just...it feels _wrong_. I don’t know how to explain it.’

‘Julian...’ Philipp started and then he stopped. Julian could picture him sighing or trying to think of what to say next. ‘Julian I feel it to. This is what happens when...’

When he didn’t continue, Julian tested the connection. ‘When? Philipp?’

‘This is the feeling of sorrow, of loss. Julian, Pep is dead. And, I fear, so is Benedictus.’

Julian froze entirely. Even if he could have moved, he wouldn’t have. ‘I don’t believe you. I just left him in Rome.’

He heard Philipp calling his name but he couldn’t hear him anymore. The roar of the nearby sea overwhelmed him and he struggled to push himself up. He had to get back to Rome. He had to find out what had happened. Benedictus dead. It couldn’t be. It would simply be impossible. He shut Philipp out and forced himself to change into an animal that was quicker than his vampire form. He didn’t have the strength to return to a bat, so he chose a horse instead and started to gallop as fast as he could back to the basilica.

As he neared the capital of the fallen empire, a new voice entered his head. Robert. He relaxed only slightly when he heard it.

‘Julian?’

‘Philipp told me Benedictus is dead. Have you seen him? It isn’t true is it?’

Julian was met outside the city gate by Robert and he transformed back into his normal self. He must have looked worried because Robert lifted a hand out to him in a calming gesture. He looked...apologetic. Julian shook his head.

“Tell me you’ve seen him. Tell me he’s all right!”

Robert laid a hand on his arm and pulled him into a hug. Gently, he rubbed his back. Most of the rest of his words faded away on the wind and Julian felt the pain of a thousand deaths in his heart. He wanted to cry, but he couldn’t. Vampires couldn’t cry, but that didn’t stop him from wishing that he had taken his Master’s place instead. The final thought he had before he gave out was that he shouldn’t have left Benedictus alone. Julian collapsed as the weight of Robert’s next words sunk into his mind. 

“I’ve found what’s left of him in the basilica. It seems he was meeting someone and they surprised him. I came to warn him. Pep was murdered earlier as well…I’m sorry, I was too late…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note:* Yes, I'm aware there's a slight continuity but that's for a reason ;)


	12. Behind the Mirror

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The ficspiration continues with another update! I would've posted last night but AO3 was down :( This one is a little different for reasons that you shall find out about when you read it. And somebody gets some action ~~finally~~ ;) More to come soon! the story is sadly winding down now though I think so please bare with me as I haul this one home. I already have ideas cooking for a new story (and I haven't forgotten about the Criminal Minds one, either). As always, please let me know what you think, otherwise thank you for reading ♥

Julian stood atop the weathered rocks near the summit of a long-forgotten peak and looked across the vastness of the chain of hills surrounding him. The wind whipped at his face and made his eyes sting with the cold sharpness of it all. There was snow underneath his feet and it crunched as he shifted his weight. He had abandoned trying to be in his vampire form and stood as a wolf on the peak because it was easier to navigate the rough terrain. He decided at last on a route to take and began to pick his way down the steep slope, causing pebbles to roll underfoot, towards a ledge.

He hadn’t been here in a long time, but the route through the Carpathians towards their forgotten fortress in the mountains would never be erased from his mind.

He wasn’t sure what had lured him back here or why he even thought he would find anything in the ruins of some of the happiest days of his existence. Benedictus had died in those mountains, not to mention Robert and Pep and several others in the attack that had scattered them to the wind. Julian had never wanted to go back here and so he hadn’t. Even Mats had moved their coven away from the mountains, though Julian always suspected that was out of practicality rather than sentiment. If it could be breached once, even if it was impossible, then there always stood the chance that it could happen again. Mats wouldn’t want to waste time trying to find out how it had happened, so he moved them for safety.

Julian wasn’t even sure if some of the tunnels remained open. With it having been a few hundred years since they had entered them, he wouldn’t be surprised if a few rockslides hadn’t sealed the passages shut. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do if that were the case, he hadn’t really thought that far ahead. He sniffed along the ground as he went, looking for a trace of anyone else and there was nothing. Extremely faintly on the wind, he caught the smell of another pack of wolves but they were upwind and could be miles away. Julian wasn’t surprised. Not much could survive up here anyway.

He found the outcrop that led into one of the tunnels and entered it. It was one that he remembered from his youthful days of being a fledgling shape-shifter. It was an opening that he could only fit through if he were the size of a small cat. Julian ran at the opening in wolf form, only changing to the appropriate creature just before he would have otherwise hit the wall. Once inside, he shook his coat from the chill and started carefully through the so-far open passage. There was some small debris of rocks and mossy plants that had blown in with the winds, but for the most part it had gone unmolested.

Julian wound his way through the crevices in the rock and shook violently when a few drips of water landed on his back from the stalactites overhead. Scowling at the ceiling, he shifted his gaze back to the path and continued forward on his delicate feline feet. There were new stalagmites that blocked the way now that had never once existed and sometimes he’d have to step over them or wind his way around the rocks that had fallen in the path, but still it remained clear and Julian was surprised.

Eventually, he arrived at the place that he knew the path widened enough that he could change shape once again. It would be another hour or so before he would arrive at the point where he could resume his vampiric form. That was, assuming, the rest of the journey had been as easily done as this portion. Stretching his back in an arch, Julian let himself remain as a cat before he moved forward through the mountain. He kept himself alert, listening for any sound of something that wasn’t either him or the mountain. Occasionally a gust of air would blow in from somewhere where the wind had found a way inside and it would ruffle his fur.

As he walked, Julian tried to set aside his memories of the final night that he had spent with his Master here. It always seemed a little hazy any time he tried to recall it but that happened sometimes. He simply chalked it up to the fact that it was a memory he would like to forget and would dwell on as little as possible. It had happened over a thousand years ago, surely he was allowed to find it all a little hazy after all this time? Julian used to think it was a dishonor to his Master’s memory that he had forgotten or tried to about what happened, but as he thought about it now, he realized it was only the fact that he’d been trying to cope with the loss. He hadn’t taken Benedictus’ death very well.

He paused at the expanse where he could change back to a vampire and did so but he kept his eyes closed. It was entirely dark in the cavern and he listened to the sound of the mountain. Only a few drips lingered behind him and he knew, simply from memory, where he was standing. There would be a ledge about a hundred feet to the right of him that he would have to wind over the naturally formed steps in the cavern. At the bottom of that ledge it would drop sharply, without warning, a few hundred or perhaps a few thousand feet below where there were sharp rocks at the very bottom. Julian knew because Benedictus had died down there.

Taking a deep breath, Julian opened his eyes and started forward, able to see due to his heightened senses despite the pitch black color. He stopped at the edge of the ledge but he didn’t look down. Instead, he knelt to his knees and placed a hand on the smooth surface of the rock. He didn’t have Philipp’s gift of being able to project himself to see the history of a certain place, but he didn’t want to for this spot anyway. Knowing that both Robert and Benedikt had died here was enough and he didn’t want to see it happen again. Murmuring his sentiments to his master, he rose and went away from the ledge towards the outcrop that spanned the vast emptiness below.

Julian had never heard the gate be silent before but it was now. His footsteps echoed on the rocks as he started across the outcrop. He was surprised to see it still there, but it was sealed shut, locked with a rusty padlock. He’d never seen it that way before. He frowned as he approached it and watched to see if it would move. It did not. Julian regarded it for a moment longer before he reached out and lightly touched the lock to see if the enchanted gate would give under a familiar touch. The lock was cold under his fingers but it didn’t give, though the chain rattled in his hand as he tried to tug the lock open. Years of neglect and rust had the shackle give pretty smoothly, though the metallic clang of it echoed extensively in the deep.

Julian remembered that Benedictus had always pulled the gate towards himself when he opened it and Mats would always push it forward away from his body. He never did learn why they did that, but he made a mental note to ask Mats later. Following his Master’s footsteps from centuries before, Julian pulled the gate towards himself and took a step through hesitantly. He wasn’t sure what he expected to happen, but when nothing did, he shrugged it off and continued across the narrow ledge towards where he remembered the stairs to be. He refused to look to the side as he crossed. He knew that Benedikt’s body would not be down there, but he didn’t want to risk seeing a ghostly vision that would place it there even if he knew that was impossible.

He crossed the ledge without incident and arrived at the stairs on the other side. At some point, rocks had shifted and coated the stairs in their debris, dust was prominent from the untouched landscape and Julian felt a shiver run along his spine. Shaking his head and mentally telling himself to get a grip, he started up the steps to go back to the scene of the only battle that had taken place in the coven’s familial chamber. He climbed the stairs and saw the point where he had been when Bendictus had died. He’d been fighting a vampire from a coven north of theirs, Wojciech, and the overwhelming grief had seized him. Wojciech had left him to leave through the various tunnels and escapes with the rest of the coven that had attacked theirs. Why he hadn’t finished him off, Julian didn’t know.

The fireplace was void of flames and the tables remained shattered where they’d fallen that night. Chairs were overturned and covered in cobwebs and dust was everywhere. Julian shook his head and felt a sadness for the loss of an era when things had been simpler. Yes, the world had advanced and new technology had made the world a more interesting place. He now had a reminder of the old ways and it made him sad that it was lost now. He rested a hand on an upturned chair leg and sighed as he let his shoulders slump.

“Come now, Julian. You can’t haven given up heart now, you’ve come so far.”

Julian spun on his heel, eyes widening in disbelief. His mouth gaped open as he stared at the speaker.

“You--you’re...you’re _alive_?”

A familiar smile lost for a thousand years met his shocked face and there was a slight incline of his head. “Indeed. But come Julian, we have a lot to discuss before I send you back to Mats.” A gentle hand rested on his shoulder as he was ushered kindly further into the old fortress. The hand was real enough as the person it belonged to, but that didn’t mean Julian believed that he wasn’t about to have a conversation with a ghost...

* * *

Benedikt was falling, down and down until there was only darkness below until he reached what had to be the bottom of a pit because it seemed as if he had shattered into a million pieces. Somehow, he picked himself up and looked around. Where he thought he had shattered simply appeared to be a bunch of fragments of a mirror, broken and jagged, as they littered the floor. Around him, the space was dark but the silver sheen from the reflections on the mirror allowed him to look inside and see his reflection.

Only it didn’t, it should have done, but it didn’t.

Benedikt frowned and reached forward to touch the surface of one of them but something stopped him before his fingers made contact with the surface. Looking through on the other side was a version of himself, in a cavern with a large fireplace in the background and a book in hand. Another mirror showed him walking with Julian on a curtain wall under the moonlight with part of a castle behind them. Other mirrors showed various scenes of him and members of the coven, some he knew and some he didn’t, but all the settings were different.

“Am I dead?” He wondered aloud and couldn’t make heads or tales of what he was seeing. They were obviously memories, but they weren’t _his_. He guessed they were Benedictus’ but how that was possible, he wasn’t sure.

“Not yet.” A voice much like his own came from beside him and Benedikt startled at the suddenness of it. Glancing over warily, he blinked because now he was seeing a reflection of himself, only there were a few very noticeable differences.

Paler than himself, with sharper teeth protruding into two fangs, and eyes redder than cherries stared back at him. Otherwise he looked the exact same. Benedikt started and jumped backwards, falling to his hands as he tried to crawl backwards away from the vampire, scraping his hands on the jagged edges of the mirrors.

“How? What are you? What am I doing here?” He couldn’t stop himself from bubbling out questions the way a stream sprouts from its source. “Where is here?”

Benedictus smiled slightly before folding his hands in front of him. “I confess, I’m not quite sure how you are here myself, though, I’m sure I will figure it out somehow. You know what I am and likely who I am, though you may not believe your own eyes.”

“Aren’t you dead?” Benedikt asked and stared at the ancient version of himself. “That’s what all the others seem to think.”

Benedictus shook his head. “I’m not dead, exactly. I’m just...not existing entirely, either.” He frowned and gestured to the darkened room. Benedikt looked around, where once he had seen only blackness now there was enough light coming from somewhere to show that the room was in fact a sitting room of some kind, though it was hidden mostly in shadows.

“Does that mean I’m--existing--now, like you, also?” Benedikt whispered. He wasn’t sure how he’d handle simply existing in the netherworld without the chance to escape.

“I don’t know.” Benedictus replied honestly and then his entire tone and posture changed. He crossed the expanse between them in a flash, startling Benedikt at the speed, and he took a firm hold of the human’s shoulders. “But for our sakes, I hope not. So I must be quick. If you are in fact somehow able to leave this place, and I pray you are able to, you must tell Philipp and Mats the truth of what happened that night.”

“What night?”Benedikt asked, feeling a pressure beginning in his toes that he couldn’t explain. It was as if someone were standing on them, but no one was.

“The night I died. I died in Rome, the night the emperor was crowned. Robert is the one who murdered me.”

“What makes you think they don’t already know--?”

“Think! I can see it, I can see them. I know what he did. He enchanted them into believing there was a fight and that we all were attacked and died in that fortress. If you press Mats or Bastian even, they know it wasn’t so. Thomas knows more than anyone that the mountains were the safest of all our hiding places. He made those tunnels himself and Marco enchanted them so they could not be found by anyone who was not of our coven. It had to be someone from the inside, and Robert knew that. It’s why Pep and I both had to vanish.”

Benedikt kept his mouth shut and let the vampire continue. “Robert is bewitching their minds. He must have great power to be able to do that and for so long. He won’t be a match for the coven if they are united, but separated or sparring, there will be no hope for you.”

“But Robert showed himself in the graveyard to Mats and me earlier, before I came _here_.”

Benedictus nodded. “Then he must no longer care about hiding anymore, which is dangerous for all of you. I am glad that you were smart enough to decipher my senses to get to the cemetery to save them.”

“You did that?” Benedikt shivered when he remembered the instinct to get to the graveyard and he couldn’t explain why.

“Of course. We are connected and always have been, though again, I do not know how. Those feelings you’ve had throughout your entire life where you ‘weren’t alone’? I was there and I’ve tried so hard to come through the void that separates us to show you that I’m here, but I’ve never been successful. But you’re the first one that I’ve gotten close to since I’ve been here; oddly enough, none of the coven have even perceived me and believe me, I’ve tried to get their attention.”

Benedikt shook his head, unable to believe that those times of being watched were real--that someone really had been watching him. Benedictus knelt beside him and rested his hands on his shoulders. The crushing feeling in his toes was now extending rapidly up his legs and into his abdomen. He felt as if he were being rolled over by a thousand-pound-rock.

“Please, when you get out of here, you must tell them the truth.”

“When?”

Benedictus smiled slightly, though he looked sad at the same time. “You’re already fading which means you are leaving this world.”

Indeed, he was correct. Benedikt could see the shadows in the room growing darker and the shimmer from the mirrors were the only light illuminating his and Benedictus’ faces.

“Mats said if I knew the truth I wouldn’t want to help him.”

The smile changed from rueful to amused. “Time can be a funny way of reminding someone what is truly important. Besides, Mats came to learn than my idea of co-habitation wasn’t unfounded. The irony,” Benedictus looked as if he were going to laugh, but he didn’t. “He likely meant that he and I were not always on the most civil of terms. We used to be, pardon the expression, at one another’s throats on a constant basis.”

“So he thought that I wouldn’t want to help him out of spite?”

“Most likely. Mats is not always the most intelligent of creatures at times, he lets his emotions go away with him. The opposite of myself, really.” Benedictus trailed off there and looked thoughtful.

Benedikt had to lay back on the ground because the pain had reached his lungs and it was getting extremely difficult to breathe. He kept his eyes on the kind red ones of his other self and tried to focus on breathing as well as what he’d been told.

“But you know?” Benedictus said, possibly more to himself than to Benedikt. “Mats really isn’t so bad if he could curtail that temper. I did like him some of the time...but you must not tell him that.”

Benedikt found he couldn’t keep his eyes open and the room had faded almost completely. Even the shimmering mirrors had gone and all that was left was the color red as the iris’ of Benedictus’ eyes held him in place.

“I won’t.” Benedikt tried to say before he was consumed by the pressure surrounding his body.

He wasn’t sure if he said it or not, but the words echoed in his mind at least until it felt as if he were being squeezed through a small vice that was too small for the mass of his body. Something gave way with a painful ‘pop’ and he found himself gasping for air as his eyes flew open wide and he stared overhead. It was black overhead and that’s all he could register until a flash of silver overhead broke up the sky and the rumble of thunder brought him crashing back to earth. He was in someone’s arms and they were saying over and over again in accented English ‘thank Gods, you’re back’. He felt a hand in his hair and other on his chest rubbing it in circles in what he thought was an attempt to be calming.

Benedikt let his breathing regain some level of normalcy and the thunder faded enough that he could hear the sound of the river where it had been when he had arrived at the cemetery and also the smell of damp earth mixed with the pungent scent of charred wet wood.

“What happened?” He asked, voice quieter than normal.

Mats looked up when he saw Benedikt’s eyes open. “Robert almost killed you. He did, actually, I think.” Mats shook his head to try to get himself to focus on the important part. “I had to revive you and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to.”

“I was dead?”

“Only for a few minutes.”

“I’m not a...am I?”

“No. He didn’t get far enough to complete the rites.” Mats kept his body close and Benedikt became acutely aware of how close the vampire actually was. He swallowed and saw Mats’ eyes darkening. “I’m very glad that you’re alive.”

“I thought I was only a thorn in your side.” Benedikt smiled slightly.

Whether it was out of relief or something more, Benedikt wasn’t sure, but Mats lowered his head over Benedikt’s. A ghost of air expelled his words, “a very beautiful thorn and one I’m glad for,” before his mouth closed over the human’s.

Benedikt had never kissed another man before, though it seemed that Benedictus had, because he instinctively pulled Mats closer and knew exactly how to kiss him in a way that got the vampire to growl possessively in his throat. Mats kissed him roughly and Benedikt soon became absent of all thought apart from the feeling of Mats’ lips on his own. His body, particularly his cheeks, became flushed and if he hadn’t been sure whether or not he really was alive, he certainly was now. His heart pumped ferociously in his chest and he stared wide-eyed at Mats when the vampire finally rose back up again.

“Did you--” Benedikt started before pausing to lick his lips, “did you kiss me often? Before, I mean.”

Mats shook his head, almost as dazed as Benedikt appeared to be. “No. Not often, not exactly.”

“Because...it seems like we’ve done that before.” Benedikt murmured and slowly shifted so that he was seated up on his behind on his own without laying across Mats’ lap.

The vampire rubbed the back of his neck and Benedikt was surprised to see such a human gesture from the creature. He would have laughed if he hadn’t just spent the past few minutes kissing him and rather enjoying it.

“It wasn’t the first time, let us just say.” Mats replied before clearing his throat and then standing up. He extended a hand out to Benedikt to haul him up to his feet. “Come, let us get you home. You’re going to most likely be light headed and just because Robert has disappeared for now doesn’t mean he won’t try anything again. I don’t like the notion of him being out here and we’re rather alone.”

Benedikt nodded dumbly and let Mats help him towards the graveyard wall. A few streets away there should be a carriage that they could hire to take them back to the other side of London, Benedikt thought before he stopped in his tracks. He reached out for Mats’ arm and gripped it tightly.

“Oh! Mats! I have to tell you something!”

Mats raised an eyebrow. “What is it?”

“Robert’s alive and--”

“I _know_ that, if you haven’t forgotten…”

“So am I. Er, Benedictus. He’s alive too. Kind of.”

Mats raised his eyebrows and gripped Benedikt’s arm painfully tightly. “How do you know this?”

“I saw him, I think. He wasn’t dead, but he wasn’t here either. There were mirrors and,” he waved his hands trying to explain but how did one explain the out of body experience he’d had? “We were in this room, there were a lot of shadows, but there was a painting and a settee I think, I don’t know. Anyway, he said that he died in Rome, not in the mountain fortress. And Robert was the one who had murdered him.”

Mats eyes darkened and he had to remind himself to release the hold he had on Benedikt’s arm as he made himself step away. Fury shook his body to the core and he punched a gravestone sending shards of granite flying in every direction. Benedikt watched and wondered about the depth of what he’d said but before he could ask aloud, Mats was back and had grabbed his arm.

“Hold tight to me.” Benedikt did as he asked and without warning large wings sprouted from Mats’ back and they began to climb high into the sky. They were headed east, back towards Covent Garden and the townhouse. Benedikt relaxed a little, but he was wary of the height and didn’t want to be dropped. The fact that he could feel Mats’ strong muscles as they moved through the sky was only a bonus and he hoped that they would be able to sort the mess with Robert out soon enough.

Though one thought plagued him as he realized they were making headway in this mystery of theirs. If Benedictus was avenged and he could return to the land of the living, and if Benedikt really was the reincarnated version of the vampire, then what would happen to the human Benedikt? 

Benedikt swallowed and pressed his face into the cool skin of Mats’ neck just as the vampire began his descent into Benedikt’s back garden.


	13. The Laws of Motion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really like this one. HEEEEEHEEEEE I'm so evil. Yes there's a cliffhanger, deal with it, I'm working on it ;) More to come soon, I love all of you and your patience is muchly appreciated ♥

The moonlight streamed through the cracks of the roof overhead. Robert had travelled far enough south that the thunderstorm over London had faded behind him and the smell of the sea was near enough that he could almost taste it on his tongue. He looked upwards through the ceiling and let the moonlight linger on his face. It was almost a sentimental gesture, one he never would have performed had Lukasz and Jakub been around. He felt his power growing again, but he hated how weak he still was and would continue to be. It hadn’t been like this before, when Pep and Benedictus had been alive. He’d been fearsome then, always able to keep his full potential hidden to Pep’s coven, but he’d also had to go into hiding because of what he’d done to them.

Robert sighed as he lowered himself to his knees with his arms outstretched to bask in the silver shimmers coming from overhead. It was exhausting having to shield the truth from about twenty different people for centuries, especially curious vampires and especially one pain in the ass apprentice to his master who refused to let things go. Even Mats and Philipp had let the death of Pep go uninvestigated; he’d wished Julian had been able to do the same. Robert knew how loyal Julian had been when he’d killed Benedictus, but he couldn’t let the blond survive and ruin everything he’d been working secretly to achieve.

It wasn’t as if Robert had started his life with Pep’s coven planning to take over their world, and it still wasn’t his desire to do so now. However, once he’d killed the most ancient of all vampires, even back in the Dark Ages Pep was considered ancient, he really hadn’t had much but to lurk in the shadows and control how things were perceived about the course of those events. He could remember arguing with Pep about Benedictus’ theories the night that it had all transpired. Rather, he’d been arguing and Pep had kept to his traditional calm and collected demeanor that only served to infuriate Robert to the next degree. Pep had maintained that if Benedictus could prove that they would not be harmed by existing with humans then he would endorse the idea to relocate the coven.

Fury burned inside Robert when he remembered how he’d told Pep why he in particular wanted nothing to do with humanity, it’s why he’d sought out the coven in the first place. Pep had given him a sympathetic look and told him that it was still going to go to the vote and that if he’d so desired, then he could vote against the idea. Pure rage had burned through Robert and he hadn’t been able to think, he simply reached into his pocket for the one thing he kept from his days of humanity and had attacked the oldest vampire. Pep hadn’t been expecting it. Robert threw the silver chain around Pep’s neck and pulled, hissing out of pain on his own end because it still burned him as well. He broke a chair leg and had staked his adoptive master before he could calm down and recognize the full reality of his vengeance.

Pep’s eyes had been wide as the stake drove through his heart mixed with the silver around his neck, but then he was disappearing into ashes and it didn’t matter anymore. The deed was done. Robert watched him disperse throughout the throne room and that’s when the panic had set in. He’d needed to act quickly since the rest of the coven were out hunting, with the exception of Benedictus and Julian, of course. He’d needed it to look a certain way and he didn’t have many choices in the matter.

He’d taken back the silver necklace that had once belonged to his sister, the person he had cherished the most in all the world, and slid it back into his pocket. Despite the fact it constantly burned him, he kept it as the last reminder of her and it was always close by. He threw the stake in the fire and scattered the rest of the room as if it had been attacked by another group of vampires. He even damaged a few of the tunnels that had been carved to make it look as if the non-existent invaders had come in from multiple entry points.

Robert had always been a smart individual and had taken a great interest in books and learning new things. Perhaps it was for that reason along with his own curiosity that he had instantly learned about the dark ways when he’d first become a vampire, before he’d ever met Pep. He’d read as much as he could about learning how to perform as much magic as he could without exhausting himself. This was the first time he’d ever really have to put it to much use and on such a massive scale.

He’d gone throughout the room and left an impression of a falsified memory in everything: on the furniture, the air, the arches, the doorways, even into the very mountain itself. Then he’d fixed it so that anyone who entered through the mountain would be bewitched into thinking of the attack and that they had been a part of it and had helped fight. He went out to where that bewitched gate was and it took more skill than most to leave the impression that both he and Benedictus had died being chased off the side of a precipice and shattered on the rocks at the bottom. Outside of the mountain, he looked at the windswept landscape and felt the cold breeze slap against his face. He let the darkness of his intentions spread along the cliffsides and let the mountain be cursed. Anyone that would come here would have their memories altered, even himself, if he were to return.

Once he had finished, Robert allowed him to use his ability to transport to Rome. He knew there was a new emperor and a coronation had been issued and that’s likely where Benedictus would be. He veiled his countenance so that he looked like Pep and contacted Benedictus telepathically and stated that he would be sending someone to ask him about the dissenter in their coven. There had been a rumor of such a thing, and Robert used it to his advantage. He really had felt bad about killing his friend, but he didn’t have a choice. Benedictus would be a very strong contender for the position left vacant by Pep and if he got his way, then they would integrate with humans. 

After he’d convinced Julian to return to the coven and effectively have his memory altered, Robert stayed away from the mountains. The coven believed him dead, even though he was the one that had called them back home, and he was going to keep it that way. On his own, Robert stayed away from Rome in case Julian somehow had managed to avoid the curse and wanted to investigate the empire’s capital. He stayed away from the mountains in the event he wiped his own memory. He didn’t want to go home so he stayed on the Iberian peninsula for a decade or so. He lived in a cave by the sea, always keeping an eye out for anyone from Pep’s coven that wanted to avenge their master. After a while, he thought it foolish enough to be so anxious about it. He trusted his ability and believed in his magic, so he relaxed.

He had found Lukasz over two hundred years later in the foothills of the Carpathians in a small nonconsequential farm town. The boy was entirely too curious for his own good but he was sturdy and strong and smart enough to follow orders and not ask too many questions. Robert bewitched him before he turned him into a vampire. Once it had been done, Robert was a little disappointed to see that he had no real special ability that stood out amongst vampires. Of course he had the increased speed and stamina as well as keener hunting skills, but he could not teleport nor could he read minds or affect moods of those around him. Robert almost abandoned him then but since he was so close to the place he could not return to under any circumstances, he decided to keep Lukasz for protection if nothing else.

They’d stayed in the kingdom of the Poles for a while. Robert wasn’t going to say he was homesick, but it was nice to be close on somewhat familiar ground again. They’d gone north, away from the mountains, and had settled in the new Catholic diocese of Wroclaw. Robert found it amusing to stay in a religious administrative district when he was about as far from religious as he could get. However, it was there that he and Lukasz found out the hard way that crosses and holy water really were effective at repelling vampires. The brave lad that had decided to give it a whirl was called Jakub. 

Robert had cornered him in an alley since he needed to feast and the boy had kept his crucifix around his neck. Good thinking on his part, and Robert hated that he’d not seen it until it was too late. But then again, he hadn’t known to look for it either. The boy thrust the cross at him and murmured his prayers. It stung, worse than silver, and Robert had hissed violently and flung the boy across the alley towards the chapel. The boy had been quick and flicked holy water from the nearby cathedral at him making Robert even more angry and in pain. Lukasz had finally shown up from somewhere, Robert always felt he had failed him for having taken so long in the first place, and had trapped the boy to the ground. Robert told him to be rid of the nuisance and had left to see to his wounds by feeding on a much less feisty meal.

To his dismay, Robert had returned to the falling-apart barn they’d been staying in to find both Lukasz and the Jakub boy there, only Jakub was now a vampire and Lukasz was taking very great care with helping him with the change. It was obvious to Robert after having lived with a coven full of them that Lukasz had found the person he was meant to be partnered with for eternity. Robert didn’t believe in such things and he simply rolled his eyes when he’d seen the two of them together. He’d ordered the both of them to continue following orders and he’d let them stay and then he’d gone to rest as far away from both of them as possible. He still wasn’t very happy with the Jakub boy for trying to kill him. He thought that day as he rested that he was going to get rid of the pair of them, but then Kuba as he became known revealed he had a particularly interested gift, one that Robert could use.

Jakub could predict the future.

The rarest gift of them all, one that could not be learned but had to be bestowed, and Jakub had it. Robert relished the thought of using him as well as he felt the stroke of inner jealousy he had because it hadn’t been given to him.

Robert opened his eyes and rose from his kneeling position and walked to the balcony that overlooked the small village. He knew that Lukasz was currently on guard around the perimeter and that Jakub was near the center of the village because of the vantage point there. Robert knew there was little to no chance of Mats’ coven sneaking up on them, but he wasn’t going to take any chances especially now that Benedikt was dead again. Unlike before, this time he felt absolutely no remorse for killing the human because he had no attachment to him, but it seemed that Mats would and Robert could only count down the days until Mats would come raging from the north to take out his revenge.

He shook his head and smiled a little darkly. He would be very glad not to have to worry about Mats or his coven anymore. Very glad, indeed.

* * *

Benedikt sat uncomfortably in his study in an armchair in the middle of the room as Philipp sat on a chair borrowed from the dining room and stared into Benedikt’s eyes. The man of the house was under orders not to look away from Philipp and he’d never felt a stronger urge to do just that, but still he sat as instructed with his hands calmly resting on the arms of the chair. Absently, he licked his lips as Philipp considered him. In the hallway, Mats was shouting to Bastian and Thomas to come downstairs because they were almost ready, though for what, Benedikt wasn’t quite sure. No one had bothered to tell him what they were up to.

Mats walked into the room after he had finished calling to the upper floors and looked at Philipp.

“Well, can you do it?”

“I never have tried to do this before, you know.” Philipp said, finally looking away from Benedikt. “This was always Pep’s speciality not mine.”

“I _know_ it was, but he was great at everything.” Mats sighed and slumped onto the small sofa to the right of Benedikt. He looked exhausted but Benedikt kept that thought to himself.

“Do what exactly?” Benedikt ventured quietly. Somewhere above their heads a loud ‘thud’ followed by an ‘oh dear’ on Maria’s part had Benedikt’s neuroticism stir slightly.

The two vampires exchanged a look and Benedikt felt something like dread settle in his stomach until Philipp turned to look back at him as kindly as he could. He folded his hands in his lap and returned his eyes to Benedikt’s before he spoke.

“Well, we would like to try to see if we can’t speak to Benedictus, amongst other things.”

“Just speak to him?” Benedikt asked quietly and Philipp nodded. The blond looked away to Mats, he couldn’t help himself, and though he looked tired, Mats seemed to have an anxious air about him. Anxious, waiting as if he really wanted something to happen. It didn’t calm Benedikt’s nerves. “What are the ‘other things’?”

Philipp glanced again over to Mats and when he saw the slight indication of a nod from the vampire, he continued, looking back to Benedikt.

“Well, Benedictus had a gift, as most vampires do, only his was one that was quite special and unique, even amongst vampires. Mine is the ability to see different points in time, the memories if you like, of a particular place. I believe you call it astral projection, but it is much more than just that. And Bastian is an exceptional tracker and hunter. Thomas is a medium of sorts and can speak to various spirits of the dead and so on. Julian can transform into various creatures for extended periods of time if he wishes to, and Mats has the ability to influence dreams and thoughts. But Benedictus had the ability to…”

He paused, the way one does when trying to carefully find the proper words and the correct way in which to sequence them so they didn’t upset their recipient. 

“The ability to...what?” Benedikt asked when Philipp still did not continue. “I can handle it, I promise.”

Philipp’s lips twitched in the ghost of a smile before it faded and he met Benedikt’s eyes once again.

“He could manipulate the elements around him. By that, I mean he could mold the earth, the air, the water, and fire, to his will. He also had a way with sounds and energy that I’ve never seen before. He could also tolerate sunlight to some degree, it is this one that we are most interested in.”

Benedikt was surprised. “I thought sunlight burned you to the point that you could die? And silver and fire?”

Mats’ eyes flicked over to where Benedikt sat on the chair with renewed interest, but he remained silent.

Philipp nodded. “It would have killed him also, but he could stand it for several hours before he would have to return to the shadows to recover from it. None of us know how he did it, but we would very much like to find out.”

Benedikt mulled that over in his mind as he considered it. Well, the least he could do would be give it a try, right? They only wanted to have a conversation after all and nothing more sinister than that.

“I’ll be willing to try whatever you would like to speak to him, apart from the fact I do not die, of course.”

“Of course.” Philipp smiled slightly.

“How would you converse with him?” Benedikt asked curiously and saw Thomas enter the room. It was unnerving how silent their species could be. He hadn’t heard the boy approach from upstairs, despite there being several creaky stairs on the staircase.

“Philipp and I would try to combine our energies and gifts to see if we could not return you to that room in which you were held for a few moments earlier this evening.” Thomas replied simply.

Benedikt swallowed but nodded his consent as Thomas moved closer to the human. He took his time to prepare the space, arranging it so that Benedikt was in the middle and Philipp remained as he had been in front of him. Thomas took a place behind him and indicated that Mats should move to Benedikt’s right. Thomas considered it for a moment, as if he were having a silent conversation with Philipp about something and soon enough, Marco appeared in the room to be on Benedikt’s left. Benedikt swallowed at the realisation that he was in the middle of four very powerful vampires and to say that he was suddenly uncomfortable was more than accurate.

Philipp looked at him kindly. “Close your eyes and relax, Benedikt. This shouldn’t hurt at all.”

Benedikt hesitantly nodded but did close his eyes as requested. His sense of hearing increased as he could hear himself take a deep breath. He tried to relax his heartbeat, no need to provoke his companions after all, and waited for something to happen.

It felt like a quarter of an hour had passed before something actually happened, though it had probably only been about three minutes. Thomas lightly touched his head and murmured something in a language that was neither English, German, or Latin because Benedikt couldn’t recognize it. Mats had taken one of his hands and Marco had taken the other. Philipp leaned forward and placed his fingers on Benedikt’s neck at his pulsepoint. Benedikt swallowed again and felt the beginnings of a trance take him.

“Listen to my voice,” Thomas said softly and it took Benedikt a moment to realize that it was coming from inside of his head instead of outside like it should have been. “I want you to think about your conversation with Benedictus and where you were when you had it. Remember every detail. Recall every feature of his face.”

Benedikt frowned in concentration as he did so, recalling the mirrors and the shadows with the semblance of a room behind him. He looked at Benedictus as he had done earlier, though not in fear this time. He took note of the longer hair secured with a ribbon behind his head and the way his eyes were a deep red that burned brightly. He could see the reflections in the mirrors of various points in time and various people inside them. 

“Remember, ask him about his gifts and how he accomplished them. See if there is a way for us to mimic the ability.” Philipp added before Benedikt felt his entire body lurch upwards, as if he were being pulled towards the ceiling of his lounge. Instead of hitting the ceiling, he continued climbing upwards as if he were to disappear into the night’s sky.

He felt weightless, transformed, as he floated through looking at the room and the vampire inside it. His stomach rolled a little as he glided over the mirrors and the abyss below that opened beneath them. The silver light shimmered once again as he finally felt as if he were on steady feet when he landed on the floor of the room. He had looked down to make sure he wasn’t stepping into a mirror but when he glanced up Benedictus was gone.

“Benedictus?” He called out, but the darkness remained and there was no one that answered him. “Thomas? Philipp?” He tried again but still no one answered. His voice did not even echo. Benedikt shook his head. “Mats?”

Silence remained and Benedikt swallowed. Had he been lured to a trap? Was there no way out for him now? Anxiety began to stir his mind and he called out all of their names once again. Still, no one answered. The shimmering of the mirrors had dimmed and Benedikt turned to begin looking into them if he could see Mats and the others in his living room. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do if he found the correct one, but he had to try and do something to get himself out of this place.

“It won’t work you know.” A voice called to him, one that he had never personally heard before, except once, as if it had been in a dream.

Benedikt spun on his heel and stared at the newcomer, a taller than average man with close-cropped hair. He looked older; there were lines on his face that surrounded his mouth, his forehead, and his eyes. He had a beard, salt and pepper colored.

“Who are you? And why won’t it work?”

The man smiled, kindly but it also appeared sad. As if he knew something that Benedikt did not. He was leaning against something, Benedikt squinted to realize it was a column as the darkness around him began to fade and light seemed to soothe the shadows away.

“Thomas and Philipp combined sent you here. Gifted vampires, those two. However, they neglected one detail.” The man spoke and Benedikt kept his eyes on him as he started towards the human.

“Which was?”

He smiled slightly again, as if he knew something--or in this case, lots of somethings--that Benedikt did not know. “There was a great man who lived about oh, a hundred years ago. Very smart, very gifted. He came up with three laws of this science called physics. Perhaps you’ve heard of such a field?”

Benedikt nodded slowly but didn’t see where this was going. The other man paused a few steps away from Benedikt and looked at some of the reflections in the mirrors but he continued to speak.

“Firstly, an object at rest will stay at rest unless acted on by another force. Secondly, the acceleration of an object depends on the magnitude of the force being placed upon it. And thirdly, there is an equal and opposite reaction for every action.”

“Is there any reason you’re giving me a science lesson when I could be looking for a way out of here?”

The man smiled again, though this time he looked up and Benedikt saw his eyes. There was a wistful sadness there, a pity for him, and Benedikt didn’t like it at all. The fact that he was also in the presence of yet another vampire didn’t help either.

“Very well, if I must explain it to you. Firstly, Benedictus was at rest here until you disturbed that rest earlier this evening and even more so when Philipp and Thomas placed you here.” He moved towards Benedikt again, and Benedikt began to take a few steps back. “Secondly, by having the two propel you quite forcefully into a place you were never intended to be, things accelerated quite quickly. And lastly,” the vampire paused in front of him again so Benedikt stopped his retreat. “There is an equal and opposite reaction. By your arrival here, you have sent Benedictus back there.”

Benedikt felt something very similar to dread settling in his stomach. His tone lost any and all bravado he had. “Meaning?”

The vampire shook his head and looked down to the mirror that separated both of them. “Meaning, dear Benedikt, you are stuck here while you have finally set Benedictus free.”

Dread now pumping through his bloodstream, Benedikt looked down into the mirror and saw Mats staring at the long-haired vampiric version of himself that was currently in his own lounge. All the others shared the equal measure of shock and disbelief and Benedikt wondered if they would ever remember that a human had gone here and was now stuck or if they would forget him since they now had their precious vampire back. Benedikt shook his head and when he looked up, all the shadows were gone and he could see the room as if it were drowning in daylight. The vampire looked into his eyes and Benedikt wondered what was to become of himself.


	14. Distant, But Not Far

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! An update! :D More to come soon, I promise ♥ But since this one is winding down, I would like everyone to please take a moment and go vote [here](http://www.poll-maker.com/poll389420x21744771-15) in a poll I made just to get your opinion on what I should write next. :)
> 
> Happy reading! :) Thank you everyone who sticks with me ♥

Mats couldn't believe his eyes. In a thousand lifetimes, he still would not have believed his eyes. He knew he probably looked comical, wide-eyed and shocked looking but he couldn't help himself. Standing before him for the first time in a thousand years, Benedictus was in his presence. The blond vampire also seemed surprised by the change in location as he was touching his chest to make sure he had physical substance and wasn't a ghost. He spun around and checked the room, surprised when he saw most of his old coven.

Shocked, he went to Philipp first.

"Is it...am I...how did you...?"

Philipp shook his head. "I didn't... _we_ didn't,” he gestured to Thomas then, “...it was an accident." He finished lamely.

Benedictus laughed, more of a sound of nervous tension being released then actual amusement. He did pull the smaller vampire into his body for a hug and Philipp was too surprised to hug him back immediately, but did so after he'd gotten used to the feeling of Benedictus actually being a solid form in front of him. Benedictus squeezed Philipp for a good long while before he turned to Thomas to greet in the same way, and then Marco. He avoided Mats, who had still not spoken or made a sound, and looked at the lounge that surrounded them. He wasn’t ready to deal with the de facto leader of the coven since Pep’s death.

"I had seen this place so many times. It is odd to be inside of it now as myself."

"What happened to Benedikt?" Mats finally pushed out and cleared his throat. "What happened to the human?"

Benedictus turned then and his happiness, his relief immediately evaporated. "I don't know. I can only assume he was sent to where I was. If that's the case, then we need to find a way to bring him back. I fear he may go mad there if left alone too long."

"Where was that exactly?" Mats asked and almost wished his tone didn't sound accusatory. He knew full-well that there wasn't anything Benedictus could have done about where he'd been, however, Mats still felt responsible for the human. The whole idea had been his in the first place, after all; Philipp and Thomas had only been following his orders. If Benedikt was going to go mad in some God forsaken place, then that would be his fault entirely. He wouldn't be able to handle it, knowing that he had done such a terrible crime to an innocent.

"It is the space between spaces. A ghost of a place that doesn’t really exist and yet.." Benedictus shook his head and wandered around the room, relieved to no longer be in the confines of that horrible place. "We can discuss it another time. Where is my Julian? Where are the others? And where is the damned devil that caused this mess in the first place?"

"Bastian is leaving at once to go find him." Philipp replied, still not used to the fact his blood-brother had been awakened by happy coincidence. "Mario is upstairs with him now, helping him ready himself."

Benedictus knew who Mario was simply by having watched through the mirrors. Absently, he congratulated Marco on his finding of his partner before he turned back to Philipp, concern on his face.

"And Julian?"

"We don't know where he is." Mats replied before Philipp could, anger in his tone. He had bristled earlier when Benedictus had used the possessive just before his name. "He ran off."

" _Went_ off," Philipp amended gently to Mats before turning his eyes back to Benedictus, "your human counterpart suggested he try and find answers to what had happened to you. And he was only following his master's orders," Philipp looked to Mats again at that remark. Mats avoided Benedictus' eyes when he looked back over.

Benedictus closed his eyes for a moment and relaxed enough to summon his apprentice from wherever he'd gone. He only hoped Julian would be within range and could begin travelling back soon; he expected it would be tomorrow at the very earliest before he saw him again. He was extremely impatient about that.

' _Julian, if you can hear me, return to London at once. I am alive, and wish to see you. Come soon, it is no trick. You may ask Philipp or Mats if you do not believe me._ ' _Now, we wait_ , Benedictus thought to himself as he went over and took a seat to collect himself and try to figure out what to do next. Absently testing his skills, he created a fire in the grate with a simple wiggle of his fingers. It sprung to life renewed and warmth soon began to flood into the room despite none of them needing it.

"Either way, he's not here and won't be for quite a while." Mats said and turned away from the fire, having had quite enough of it lately. "Robert will be found soon enough, but we must find a way to get Benedikt returned here. _Alive_."

The other vampires did not miss Mats’ final word but they were disturbed by the presence of another voice in the room. One that they had not expected.

"I think I may be able to help with that."

All five turned to the window that opened up to the garden outside. Marco stood in surprise and Philipp blinked.

"Didn't travel very far, did you?" Mats asked shortly, irrationally angry at the turn of events of the past hour. He knew it was irrational, but he had quite enough and his temper had grown frayed. "Some servant you are."

"Actually," Julian amended as he stepped down from the ledge. "I went back to the mountains, in Carpathia." The boy began to move towards his master, eyes locked only on him. Mats was even more irritated as he frowned.

"Then how did you return so quickly? You must have been already on your way back when he summoned you."

Julian ignored him and knelt before his master on the small sofa. "Master."

Benedictus smiled fondly and rested his hand on top of Julian's head. "None of that, rise and join me equally. I have missed you terribly."

Julian’s smile could not have been bigger had he tried; he moved up quickly as he was told and leaned into the blond's body eagerly. Benedictus held him tightly and they shared a moment of reconnection that not even Mats dared to interrupt in his mood, though he wanted to.

The older vampire paced and looked even more frustrated. Thomas rose when Benedictus and Mario finally joined them in the lounge. They looked just as surprised to see Benedictus there as they were to see Julian but neither commented. Mario went straight to his Marco and rested against his side, sighing contentedly. He was just happy that everyone was finally together again.

Softly, Benedictus asked again. "If you were not already on your way back, then how did you return so quickly after my summons? I know you cannot teleport, and even the fastest bird would take more than a few meager moments to get to England from Romania."

Julian sat up after a moment and looked sheepish. "I cannot teleport, you are correct. But my master's master can."

Mats raised an eyebrow and sighed at another lie. "Pep is dead."

Julian shook his head and looked over to the other brunette. "No, he is not."

"I've had enough of this," Mats sighed and turned away. "Lies, deceit, people coming back from the dead. Either speak sense or be gone from this place." He turned back to Benedictus and Julian and raised an eyebrow for Julian to continue with the truth this time. "Well? Let us have it."

"He's alive, he brought us back here."

"Then where is he? You are delusional and I have had quite enough." Mats shook his head and turned to Benedictus. "This is your doing. Filling his head with fancies all of his life." Mats looked to the rest of the coven as their expressions quickly began to change. He couldn’t understand it.

Philipp's chair dropped to the ground with the sudden force he had on it when he stood. Marco couldn't believe his eyes and even Mario was surprised. Thomas for once was speechless and Bastian immediately bowed his head. Benedictus developed a small smile, as if he had a suspicion that was confirmed, but it was only Julian who remained unmoved. 

Mats felt a hair raise on the back of his neck as a voice spoke to him.

"You always lacked faith, Mats. Loyalty, no, but you lack faith in the unseen, the intangible."

Mats turned slowly at the voice as the others began to bow their heads to their supreme master. The most ancient of their kind. _Josep._

"Master---how is this possible? How can it be?"

Pep smiled a little and moved closer, resting a firm, strong hand on Mats' shoulder. "A long story, to be sure. I will tell you all about it one day, but for now, the sun will rise in a few hours. Bastian, I do believe you should be on your way."

The blond nodded, breaking his shocked transfixation, and swallowed hard. He moved over and shook the man's hand. "I'm very glad to see you well," he said before he bowed again and went to the window that Julian had jumped inside of a while before. He did the opposite and jumped out to disappear into the night in search of their enemy.

“Be safe!” Philipp called out but Bastian made no visual indication that he’d heard him. Whether or not he had done so telepathically was a fact that Philipp kept to himself.

"And before the rest of you bombard me with questions, Mats is quite right. We do need to find a way to save dear Benedikt from his new prison." Pep murmured before moving over to the human’s desk and took a look at the papers scattered there. “Tell me, has anyone summoned the Hunter lately?”

Marco almost snorted in derision. “No. Why would we?”

Mario looked confused while the others remained silent. Mats’ eyes had grown calculative. Where his master intended on taking this line of inquiry, he couldn’t say. But he had already been scolded once and he would not let his master think him insolent again.

Pep smiled at Marco as he looked up from Benedikt’s desk. “I think he might be able to help us.”

* * *

How long had he been there? Hours? Days? Longer? Benedikt couldn’t say because he didn’t know the answer and it was driving him mad. Being here would drive him mad and it wasn’t going to take very long; he was sure of that at any rate.

His companion had left him after explaining Newton’s laws of motion to him. He’d been kind about it, Benedikt admitted to himself now. He could have been cruel, but the fact that he’d been there in the first place to tell him what had happened and how he came to be stuck here, imprisoned here, was a kindness that Benedikt was grateful for. Even if it meant he knew he would not escape so easily. If he ever did.

The shadows had gone as soon as he realized that he was here to stay. He figured that they would only be around if he was more or less in another world, another universe than this one. The fact that they were entirely gone now only confirmed that he was lashed to this place, never to escape.

He was sitting on the floor, the shattered mirrors surrounding him. His back was against the column and he was looking over the circular room and the mirrors that littered its floor. He knew the room’s architecture by heart now and he hated it. Hated that he wouldn’t see anything else for quite a long time.

Benedikt sighed and leaned his head against the marble of the column. He was sitting on the top most step of three that led to the expanse of floor where the mirrors were. It wasn’t a large room, but it was entirely round, no edges could be found to speak of. There were a few doorways, four to be exact, that led somewhere that wasn’t this place. He’d tried to go through them all but they were sealed by an unknown force, never mind the fact that beyond their thresholds all of them were black. No light could be seen down any of them even if he had been able to escape this place.

Eight columns lined the perimeter of the steps that led to the center floor and he had chosen one to lean on. They were all connected by arches and along the wall of the circular room, a chaise and table not to mention a few portraits lingered on the walls. He sighed. How had Benedictus been able to stand it? 

The mirrors were the worst.

Some of them were empty and showed nothing, just his own reflection. If he tried to remember--and it was a stretch to do so because it seemed like he could barely remember anything from before arriving here--he thought Benedictus’ mirrors had all been full of things. He wondered if it was because Benedictus had lived for centuries longer, therefore he would have had more memories to fill them with. Benedikt didn’t know but he didn’t like what he saw when he happened to find himself looking into the mirrors.

He guessed they weren’t that bad in the scheme of things. They showed the good times, and the bad times, of his entire life. From his birth forward until the exact moment he had been propelled to this place, wherever the hell this place even was. He saw his first meeting with Lisa, graduating from University, riding his first horse at the age of nine, and so many other things. He found himself lingering on the mirror with the first kiss he shared with Mats in the graveyard more so than any of the others.

The worst part of it was the fact that he could see them, discussing his predicament in his own living room but there was absolutely zero way of communicating with them. He’d shouted at Mats and the rest of the vampires. He’d shouted, thrown things, tried to make as much noise as possible, but it was all for naught. None of them could hear him. Benedikt had eventually given up, more out of exhaustion than defeat and he struggled to come up with a new idea, a new plan.

He could see them now, still in his living room and they were still talking to a vampire he assumed was Pep, simply from the description he’d had to go on from when Julian had been chattering away at him. Well, if somehow Benedictus and Pep and Robert were all alive, then surely some way could be found to rescue him?

Benedikt sighed and closed his eyes. He hoped it was soon. Hunger was beginning to gnaw at his insides.

* * *

He had been born on a Saturday in a village that rested alongside the sloping hills of the Carpathians where it rained more than it did anything else. From his birth, he had been proclaimed quite odd by the others in the village. For a start, he had light hair and light eyes, a fact that stood out amongst dark hair and darker eyes. He could hold the color of the sun without burning under it, even into the winter despite having to bundle up for the rain then changed to snow.

His mother had been scorned and almost shunned from the village. If she hadn’t been the only apothecary in the miles surrounding them, she likely would have been run out or stoned to death and her babe murdered before he could have drawn his first breath. As it was, she survived and bore him, bringing him to life despite the shame of it. However, she never once allowed him to feel unworthy or unloved, despite the nature of his conception. He was a happy boy, strong as he grew and smart with the knowledge of the land that surrounded their hillside. He learned his figures and how to read from his mother who taught him the various potions and remedies that she knew. It was the only life he knew from boyhood until he reached his maturity and he was happy there in that village.

Until the day everyone realized he could see what others could not.

A stranger had come out of the wood just after sundown, but none of the others had seen him. The boy, in his mid-teens, thought nothing of him more than a little curiosity since their village rarely had any strangers. He had gone about his chores, finding a certain special mushroom that liked to grow near moss and trees, and hadn’t thought more of it. He’d heard the screams from a half-mile away and he’d sprinted back towards the village as fast as his long legs could carry him, but he was too late.

On the surface, the village appeared untouched, but it was quiet. Too quiet. The boy saw few survivors, some holding the wounds on their necks to try and stop the bleeding; others had claw marks in their abdomens and they hadn’t had the chance to save themselves before they’d bled out and died. The worst of them all was the sight of that horrendous beast feasting on his mother’s lifeless body. Without thinking about his actions or the consequences thereof, pure rage blinded him and he rendered the monster’s head from his shoulders and plunged a piece of hawthorn branch into the creature’s chest. 

He had never forgiven himself for not doing more that day. He avowed that he would avenge his mother against all those foul beasts and therefore he left behind the boy Jurgen and taking up the anonymity of his new moniker, the Hunter. He left the village behind and never once did he return to it. Jurgen Klinsmann died the day his innocence had and he was going to spend the rest of his life atoning for the mistake that cost him everything.


	15. Parlor Tricks and Bedside Conversations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is so late! I had 9/10ths of the thing written then last Friday I made the mistake of going to see a movie and absolutely fell in love with it. I got sucked in by another fandom! D: *ahem* I promise, I'll finish this story though, have no worries! :)

“I’ve been meaning to ask you…”

“Mm?”

“Why does he stay in barns?”

“Because…” There was a sigh as Lukasz thought about his answer. Jakub awaited him patiently at his arm as they overlooked the village and the surrounding countryside. The heavy weight of salt in the air had penetrated their garments and it was beginning to cake on their skin, or at least, that’s what Lukasz thought as he took a moment to distract himself from answering his beloved’s question. He never liked the sea, or water for that matter. There was always the possibility of losing something inside it; a watch, a prized fishing line, your life…

Why did his master like to stay in barns?

If he was honest, and he always was with Kuba, he didn’t really know. Robert commanded himself in a way that suggested he would be at home in no less than a palace and yet, he hardly ever lived in one. He was no Grand Duke of anything, but he felt as though he should’ve been. However, his actions of what he’d done to Pep’s coven and the greatest vampire of their age would have cemented that he would never hold any position of real power or authority. Lukasz wondered if that ever twisted his already demented conscious at all.

“Because perhaps it brings him some semblance of comfort. I’m not too sure…” Lukasz started and then amended, letting his voice trail away on the final words. Jakub shifted closer until their arms rubbed along one another and the other vampire rested his head on his shoulder.

“You should speak with him about--”

Lukasz interrupted with a nod. “I know. I will. When...when all of this is over.”

Jakub pursed his lips slightly and shifted back. From his behavior, Lukasz knew that Jakub didn’t quite believe him. He _should_ talk to Robert, and one of these days he would, but now was not the time. He hoped Kuba understood that and he leaned over to peck a kiss onto the man’s cheek. Kuba smiled slightly at the gesture, if the slightest twitch of his lips were any indication.

Lukasz nuzzled the younger man’s neck and stayed close to him. He could taste the salt from the air on his skin and he hated it. He never liked the taste of it. He felt Jakub tense underneath his lips and so he glanced up, a frown in place that only deepened when he recognized the look on the vampire’s face. He sat up and waited patiently for Jakub’s vision to conclude before he spoke. He didn’t impatiently huff ‘well?’ the way Robert would have, nor did he ask what was going to happen the way a more curious person certainly would’ve done.

Jakub spoke after several moments of silence, just as Lukasz thought he’d heard a sound that no human would’ve made come from the south.

“You should have that talk with Robert.” He said again and this time Lukasz saw the distant look in his eye and the faraway sound of his tone.

“Perhaps you are correct.” Lukasz replied and then he turned away from his lover and went to investigate the source of the sound he had heard.

* * *

Mats had taken his leave of the room and had gone upstairs to investigate quite thoroughly the large window frame of Benedikt’s bedchamber. The scent of the human was strongest here, despite his only spending a few hours here to sleep. Mats could detect traces of Philipp but it wasn’t as strong here. The study, where the human had spent most of his time, had been diluted with cross-contamination from too many other people and there were too many other smells to distract himself with lingering in Benedikt’s.

“Fuck, I’m turning into a dandy.” He muttered to himself and let his hand rest on the cold glass of the window pane. There was no reflection for him to look at but he wondered what he looked like now. He wasn’t always a vain man, sometimes he truly didn’t care what he looked like. This was one of those times; though, he suspected he looked quite a sight. His hair was likely mussed in all directions and he wondered if there were circles under his eyes.

He shook his head and went to sit in the chair that had been pulled alongside Benedikt’s bed and he sat in it, looking at the empty expanse in front of him. What was he to do to bring the human home? Mats lingered on the question for a while in silence as the rest of the coven arrived and dispersed based on Pep’s orders. Mats found he had less of a problem returning control of everything to his master than he thought he would, but then again, he was rather distracted with a certain problem…

There was a soft knock on the window and Mats looked over. He wouldn’t admit to being startled, but he did feel a rush of adrenaline when he saw a face on the other side of the glass and then he calmed once he recognized the person. He pushed himself upwards and moved to the window to unlatch the hook that had held it fast.

“Mario.” Mats replied simply and stepped back to let him in. “Come in, of course.”

The handsome vampire did as he was invited and crossed the threshold into the room. He looked around curiously and remained quiet for a moment before he turned back to Mats.

“So Pep is alive, then?”

“And entertaining Lukas with as many answers as he can get in wordwise.” Mats replied shortly. The younger blond vampire had arrived a few moments after Mats had come upstairs. Bastian had barely seen the boy before he had left. Mario smiled at Mats’ comment and took the chair that Mats had vacated.

“And you are...having second thoughts about the Master’s return?”

“None at all.” Mats replied, lingering near the window since he was hesitant to sit on Benedikt’s bed. He wasn’t sure he would be able to handle that much of Benedikt’s scent without losing some of his remaining sanity at the frustration of not being able to find him immediately.

“Then what troubles you so?”

Mats crossed his arms as he leaned against the wall. Mario Gomez was a vampire, a man, who had absolutely no trouble with exuded confidence and raw sensuality wherever he went. It wasn’t fair, damn him. Now, the vampire had crossed one leg over the other knee and he was reclining back in the chair as if it had been made for him. All that he was missing to complete the portrait was a glass of finely aged Spanish wine to dangle from his elegant fingers. Mats had almost hated him upon sight when they’d met, five hundred years before.

“And you think I’m simply going to just tell you what bothers me?”

“Of course you are. I’m your most cherished friend, despite your attempts to let Marco usurp me.” He smiled, showing his fangs, and Mats shook his head.

“I should’ve killed you in Florence. Remind me why I didn’t?” Mats sulked prettily as he went to sit on the trunk at the bottom of Benedikt’s bed.

“Because I’m too handsome, and you were too distracted by said physical attributes of mine to do me any lasting harm…” Mario replied silkily and Mats shook his head. He wove in his next question as effortlessly as chocolate melts in one’s mouth. “What is it that’s bothering you?”

Mats was quiet for a long while. Long enough for the last remaining member of the coven, Wojciech, to arrive safe and sound. He shook his head and sighed, flexing his hands on his own thighs.

“If you had come up with an idea to ask Benedictus a question, from wherever it was that he had gone, but in the result of coming up with this idea, you accidentally imprisoned an innocent in that place, would you feel guilty for it?”

“Yes. An innocent is an innocent, even if they are brought into our schemes. It is why they should not be.” Mario replied with no hesitation. Then he paused and after a moment met Mats’ eyes. “There is more to this story than simply that, yes?”

At Mats’ nod, Mario indicated that he should continue and Mats took a deep breath before he divulged the entire series of events leading up to Benedictus’ return as he knew them. Mario, to his credit, stayed silent the entire time, occasionally nodding as Mats would glance up to him. Mats was grateful for his silence and once he had finished the tale, he found himself grateful for having gotten it out but also even more desperate to find a way for Benedikt to escape.

“So, he is stuck there for the time being, until we can find a way for him to bridge the ether and return to us.” Mario summarized at the conclusion of Mats’ speech. Mats nodded and sighed, deflated. “Clearly, your love is in danger, but I think for the time being he is safer there. At least, until we know what to do with Robert.”

“My love?” Mats frowned at the endearment. He was positive he’d never called Benedikt that.

Mario raised an elegant eyebrow. “Dear man, do you not realize you’ve found your life’s partner?” Mario’s smile grew when Mats scowled even more. “Perhaps, it’s a realisation of itself that you love him?”

“I do?”

“Don’t you?”

Mats thought about it. He hadn’t ever been in love before, not really, he didn’t think. He had loved certain people in his life but more so of a familial nature than anything else. Marco was another dear friend that he loved but not in an amorous way. The rest of his coven he was protective of, and he loved Pep the way a pupil loves their most favorite teacher, but he did not love a single person to the end of the universe and back.

Mario must have seen him struggling to place his feelings because he interrupted Mats’ thoughts on purpose.

“You want to protect him, don’t you? Make sure nothing bad happens to him?” Mats nodded.

“You would feel extremely displeased if Julian or another vampire took a special interest in him, wouldn’t you?” Mats nodded again and this time his eyes narrowed and his fingers gripped his legs tighter.

“You would feel extremely remorseful if he were to be harmed fatally?” Mats eyes narrowed again as a strong sense of anguish stirred in his abdomen. He nodded.

“When you think of someone being in danger, your immediate thoughts go to him?” 

“Enough of this.” Mats huffed and rose from the trunk to move back to the window. “Fine, I at least have some feeling of sentiment for the human but it matters not when I am the one who cursed him to Gods know where and cannot bring him back out again!” He smashed his hand against the glass panes o the window, causing a crack to splinter them. None of them shattered, but it was only a testament to the quality of craftsmanship that had created them that prevented it.

“Pep wishes to summon the hunter, though I can’t say exactly why.”

“Perhaps he thinks by vanquishing Robert, we’ll be able to free your human?”

Mario watched his friend pace the room and he found himself equally amused and concerned for him. He hadn’t ever seen Mats this way before.

“Can’t you do something?” Mats asked, turning to face Mario. “Your gift...is there anything you can do?”

Mario frowned; he had considered it when Mats had been explaining the situation. He would’ve helped the vampire even before he realized Mats was in love with the human, simply on the notion of their friendship. However, now that Benedikt was clearly the source of Mats’ fixated emotions, it became even more apparent that something would have to be done.

“ _I_ cannot,” Mario started, and saw Mats’ expression begin to fall back into the chasm of despair. “But I believe someone who can help us is not too far away. I will go and see him.”

“Who is he?” Mats asked, still not roused from his unhappiness.

“The only real chronokinetic person we know of in existence. Joachim.”

Mats hesitated at the mention of the man’s name. He was no vampire, but nor was he entirely human anymore. Mats would have likened him to a wizard, but he wasn’t ever certain if that was the proper description of him either.

“You hesitate, why is that?” Mario asked, already standing from the chair to ready himself to travel quickly.

“Do you...do you think it would work? You know what they say about altering time…”

“We’re not altering it, not exactly.” Mario smiled slightly and clasped Mats’ shoulder as he walked past. “I’ll be back as soon as I can, though, I expect, you’ll see him before you see me again.” Mario smiled and stood on the ledge as his wings began to sprout from his back. Like Mats, they were black also. With one final smile, he pushed off from the ledge and started to climb into the sky.

Mats hoped he had travelled far enough away so that he wouldn’t have heard his murmured whisper, “perhaps you don’t wish to change time, but _I_ do.”

* * *

Jurgen had never been the type to relax on a chair in _any_ one’s sitting room and enjoy a nice cup of tea. The closest he could get was having a glass of some form of whisky that God knew where Jogi had actually it from in his parlor. He wasn’t sure how he had come to be friends with the magician, but he had and perhaps living a lonely life was taking its toll on him after all. He’d started to hear voices in his head, voices from people long since passed, and he hadn’t liked it at all. Drinking Joachim’s whisky seemed to be the only thing that put them to rest for a while.

“Penny for your thoughts?” Jogi hummed as he entered the parlor after he had returned from what Jurgen called the dungeon but Joachim simply referred to as his ‘wine cellar’. Jurgen knew damn well there wasn’t wine down there; he was pretty sure there were several cauldrons though and what they were brewing… Well, no wine Jurgen had ever seen was a bright, shinning blue.

“You don’t have enough pennies.” Jurgen replied dryly and finished off the drink with a grimace. It burned delightfully on the way down, though he knew he’d pay for it with indigestion later.

“Perhaps not.” Joachim said and his hand moved over Jurgen’s empty glass, refilling it with only a gesture. It had really concerned the blond the first time he’d ever seen Jogi do it. The magician had laughed at his alarmed reaction and considered it one of his best ‘parlor tricks’. “Still, it cannot hurt to tell me, now can it?”

Jurgen was debating that after a sip of the refilled glass when there came a knock on Jogi’s front door. The other man sighed and excused himself before he went to answer it. Jurgen thought no more of it as he slouched in his chair and stared into the depths of the glass. That was, until, he heard Jogi’s approaching voice speak in a different language, one Jurgen knew only too well. From the newfound guest’s reply that Jurgen could also hear, the speaker knew their Latin well. Too well.

The glass had just shattered on the ground and Jurgen had moved out of sight when Joachim and the guest entered the room. Joachim had taken a look at the shards on the marbled floor before he heard Mario’s hiss and the sound of silver touching a vampire’s skin filled the air.

“Enough, Jurgen!” Joachim turned to face the two. Jurgen did indeed have a silver stake that he was pressing not-so-pleasantly into Mario’s back while holding Mario’s arm behind him, and the vampire was trying to turn round and would likely have rendered Jurgen’s head from his shoulders had he the ability to move his arm to do so.

The hunter did not release the vampire’s arms, but he did lower the stake only slightly. His eyes burned into Joachim’s.

“I should have known! All you foul unnatural beasts support one another!” Jurgen felt the twist of betrayal on Joachim’s part for choosing a vampire over himself in his belly. He felt stupid, naive. He hated it.

“Hardly,” the vampire replied dryly. “You can hunt down as many werewolves as you like and I would not lift one finger to stop you.”

Joachim rolled his eyes at that and moved over to pull Jurgen away from Mario. Jurgen did exactly as the magician anticipated he would do, he jumped back before Joachim could even touch him, thus releasing his hold on Mario’s body. The vampire was quick to move because before Jurgen could blink, Mario was standing alongside his vacated chair. Jurgen gripped the stake a little bit tighter in hand as he looked the vampire over. He hadn’t seen this one before.

“Now, gentlemen, if we could all take a seat…” Joachim said in a tone that indicated he was not to be argued with but still exuded cheer and mirth. His eyes, however, suggested that he would not be submissive in his request. Jurgen was tempted to just leave but Joachim steered him by the shoulder into place and seated him down in the chair next to the broken glass.

“Now then. Mario, how may I be of service to you?” Joachim asked in Latin, the easiest language for all three of them to understand, though Jurgen had more difficulty with it than the other two.

The vampire regarded the hunter with disdain on his face before he made a sound of discontentment before he seated himself down on the chair nearest to Joachim. He brushed a non-existent speck of dirt off of his sleeve before he spoke. The hunter kept his eyes on him, not ready to relax in mixed company just yet.

“We came to seek your help if you would grant it. Ironically, my Master wishes to see your guest also.” Mario replied and Jurgen shook his head.

“I’ll be damned before I help any of you. I’m no fool.” Jurgen replied harshly and wrapped his hand tighter around the stake. “Help you and you’ll repay me by taking the blood from my veins.”

Joachim seemed unsurprised by this reaction and spoke instead, talking over Jurgen. “Help with what, exactly? You know I don’t become involved with many things for very specific reasons.”

Mario wondered if the hunter knew about Jogi’s side-business when he wasn’t brewing concoctions or potions for various maladies and injuries. He wasn’t going to be the one to out the man, but he did need his help, therefore he would need to speak a bit freely.

“I am aware of your methods and the reasons behind them. However, we have a situation that needs an...expert...touch. A delicate one, if you will.”

Joachim leaned back in his chair as he considered Mario. He knew the vampire by reputation and by personal experience. He was a man with refined tastes, albeit expensive ones but for the overall picture, the vampire was pretty benign unless he was provoked into action, but even that took a long time to do. Jogi was also aware of his ability and knew that if Mario had come asking, there was a good reason.

“Perhaps I can be of some service, for the correct payment, of course.” Joachim smiled a little and Mario tipped his head in acknowledgement of those words.

“I’m sure my Master would be able to come up with something you would find agreeable.” Mario smiles and shows his fangs, irritating the hunter even more.

“I’m leaving.” Jurgen makes to stand up but Jogi’s words stop him.

“If I could find an honest to God cure for your little, _problem_ , Jurgen, do you think you could lend your services to whatever this gentleman’s master would require?”

Jurgen’s eyes narrow with contempt and hatred of the man he’d thought was his friend until a few moments ago. This was blackmail, dishonesty, and he’d thought Joachim a gentleman. Joachim, to his credit, looked unmoved by his own statement, as if he’d asked about the weather.

“I would take it as my payment, but then be rid of all of you.” He says finally, bitterly and hates himself for saying anything.

“There you have it, Mario,” Joachim says pleasantly, looking up finally to the vampire. “You have the services of both of us.”

“My master will be pleased.” Mario smiles and looks the hunter over. Hatred pours from every cell of his body and the vampire can only wonder what possible curse fate has placed on him that got him to cave to Joachim’s request so easily.


	16. When the Clock Strikes 12…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HOLY SHIT. It's been far too long since I've updated this ;-; I'm so sorry. ;-; It's almost over though! Another chapter or two perhaps and it'll be all done. ^.^ I may write a couple one shots off the end of it, but we'll see. Thank you extremely for being patient with me. I know it's been a long road!
> 
> This chapter is kind of odd because it's broken up into different points. If you want you can read it through 1-12, or read it the way it's written where they're all different numbers. Your choice. I like it both ways. Anywhooooo. Onward to the next chapter! And again, I'm so sorry!!!

_Twelve._

He burned with rage, a rage so hot it seemed that it would consume his entire being and smolder through his skin so that his robes caught aflame and he would truly be burned from the inside out. He had scanned the entirety of the space that surrounded him until he snarled with disgust and let out his wrath, shattering every reflective surface in the perimeter and cracking every mirror.

A mocking smile was all that remained on the broken glass, duplicated over and over for a thousand panes.

* * *

_Ten._

“Hold your breath.”

“What?”

“Just do it.”

Surprise at the voiced command and the solid feeling of a body holding him mixed with relief, but was all too quickly replaced with the bottomless feeling of an eternal drop as they sank down from the cliff and into the cold, dark sea below.

All that Benedikt recalled was the firmness of the grip that Mats kept on him as the vampire began to swim downwards and the darkness overwhelmed his senses.

* * *

_Three._

“Remind me why we have to do it this way?” Marco asked Philipp as they both led a good portion of their coven towards the point where Bastian had alerted them that Robert would be. A barn, of all places, a barn? It made no sense, Marco thought but he still trusted Bastian’s judgment.

“Because it is unexpected as much as it is expected.” Lukas replied in Philipp’s place and Marco rolled his eyes. Mario followed along behind in the line, keeping close to his partner, while Wojciech and the others brought up the rear. All in all there were about ten of them.

“We are the distraction while the master and the others do their work.” Philipp replied and continued to faithfully advance on their target. They were walking for a reason; they would be too loud to ignore by vampire’s standards and they would let Robert and his two minions know exactly where they were…

* * *

_One._

“The space—”

“Between spaces, yes.”

“What does that—?”

“Mean? Well, it’s hard to explain. You see, it’s like there’s this gap between where we are and any other point in time. It should not be messed with, but…well, desperate times call for desperate measures and all that…”

“Stop interrupting what—”

“You’re going to say? I’m sorry, Jurgen, I will try but—”

“It’s damned annoying! How do you know—?”

“What you’re already going to say?” Joachim laughed as he closed his eyes on the hill top and began to focus his energy. “My dear friend, we’ve already had this conversation.”

“How? You’ve been here this whole time?”

“I’ve been everywhere at every time. I’m there now. Now let me work, and for God’s sake, don’t let anyone kill me. And you had best hope I don’t disappear.”

* * *

_Eleven._

They broke the surface of the water and Benedikt gasped for air. He felt like a starved man and he thought he was going to black out, but somehow Mats had swum fast enough that they’d avoided that little incident.

“How? Where are we? What happened? Where’s Robert?” Benedikt asked, shivering extensively and still gasping for air.

Mats held him upright in the salt water, afraid to let him go for fear that he would disappear back to that wretched place that Benedictus had described earlier in the afternoon while the sun had still been out. He was also afraid that Benedikt would disappear in another place, below the black surface of the ocean that still surrounded them in her icy hold.

“I’ll answer all of your questions and more later. But for a start we are in an underwater cave a few miles from where Robert and his miniscule coven are and we must go. Julian awaits us a mile away with warm clothes and a fire. Can you swim?”

Benedikt blinked, barely seeing Mats in the darkness. He could hear the echoes of dripping water from overhead and the lap of the ocean against rocks unseen in the darkness. He felt tired, and the cold wasn’t helping him.

He nodded. “I think so.”

“Then let us be on our way.” Mats hesitated a moment before pulling Benedikt into a small kiss. “I am so glad you are free.”

The human whispered as he leaned into the solidness that was the vampire’s chest. “So am I. You have no idea how grateful I am.”

The words reverberated in Mats chest as he spoke them. “I think I do.”

Then they kissed once again before Mats pulled away to start swimming to his rendezvous with Julian, making sure to keep Benedikt close behind.

* * *

_Two._

Bastian stood where he could be seen, and see all things, plainly in the moonlight. It did not take long before he saw the Polish vampire appear before him. He remained calm and waited for the ever-patient Lukasz to approach. He had sensed this vampire was more gentle giant than violent troll and he was proven correct when the blond appeared before him.

“You know what is coming, don’t you?” Bastian asked softly.

“I will not betray my master.” Lukasz’s soft reply came.

“Even if he has already betrayed you?” Bastian tilted his head and watched the other vampire.

“He is selfish and vain, I know this already.”

“Then why serve him? He needs you, you do not need him.”

Lukasz remained quiet a little longer to the point where Bastian wondered if he would speak again. Eventually, he did and Bastian smiled at his advantage.

“I am loyal. It is my fault.”

Bastian shook his head as he advanced a step. “No. It is your credit and your character. Come, let us be friends and leave this place.”

Lukasz shook his head and let his fangs shine. “I cannot do that.”

Bastian suppressed a sigh as he flexed his fingers. So this would not be entirely easy after all. Well, he _was_ loyal to a fault, that was his gift after all. Even though his loyalty was misplaced.

“Let me show you how…” Bastian said just before Lukasz lunged for his throat.

* * *

_Four._

Robert remained bathed in the moonlight but he heard them approaching. It would be impossible not to for they were as loud as a heard of cattle. He closed his eyes, inhaled deeply and picked up on the scents of many of his former coven and a bunch besides. A breeze blew through the slats of the barn and ruffled his hair; he barely noticed as he teleported himself to blocking the road that the other vampires approached on.

No Mats, what a pity he thought. He very much would have liked to kill him for good this time.

“Surprised to see me, _brothers_?” He spat the final word and Philipp looked levelly at him as the rest of the coven spread to form a line, effectively blocking the road. Good thing the humans were in bed this time of night, not that he cared a whit about them.

“I wish I could say yes. But you have been twisting our minds for so long, the real pleasure will be seeing your corpse burn to ashes.” Philipp replied from across the distance that separated them.

“What a friendly greeting. You wonder why I left.” Robert replied dryly, seeing Kuba making his way to flank them. Robert’s face remained impassive.

“Left?” Marco made a derisive noise. “Murdered your way out, you mean. Lied, cheated.”

“Things you would know all about, Marco.” Robert’s eyes were hard as they were narrow. “What shall we talk about then? For you came to talk, I presume?”

Philipp shook his head. “No. We have come to finish you, once and for always.”

Robert sneered, fangs lethally sharp and shining bright in the starlight. “Good. I had similar intentions.”

With their attention focused on him, none of them were prepared for Kuba’s sudden leap behind them and the snarl Wojciech made as he went down and the fight began.

* * *

_Six._

Jurgen watched transfixed as Joachim remained in his entranced state. His lips moved, but no sound came out and he was transparent. Jurgen was afraid he was disappearing as Joachim had warned, but he was still mostly solid; there was _something_ there for the human to touch and he had tried.

He had never known this part of his friend before and he wasn’t sure what to make of it. Joachim had not really explained very well what exactly he was going to be doing but Jurgen had every intention of finding out.

The human shook his head as he went back to looking over at the barn where all of this was supposed to be happening. Something caught his eye as he was shifting to look and he swallowed hard. A vampire he had seen before was coming directly at them. If he recalled correctly, this was one of the ones they were supposed to be hunting.

Jurgen reached into his coat’s pocket and extracted the silver-tipped stake. He readied himself to defend Joachim as the vampire Lukasz began his approach up towards their position on the hill.

* * *

_Five._

Benedictus looked at his apprentice with a fond look and found that he was again unable to remove his eyes from the boy’s face. Julian noticed and smiled sheepishly as he carefully tended the fire that was heating up some water. Whenever, if ever, Benedikt arrived, there would be something warm for him to drink.

“What is it?”

Benedictus shook his head and moved over to pull Julian into his arms. The boy all too-happily complied. They had shared a coffin for their rest during the daylight hours earlier. They had mercifully been given their privacy, though they had done little more than rest with their arms and legs intertwined.

“I just missed you is all. I am so proud of everything you have become.”

Julian felt a release of emotion flood through him. Everything he had strived for during his master’s absence had just been validated. He pressed his nose closer into Benedictus’ neck and inhaled the scent he once thought lost.

“I will always remain your servant, master.” Julian whispered and Benedictus looked down upon where the fire illuminated his face. The elder vampire shook his head as he lifted Julian’s chin.

“You shall be my equal for always and beyond if you will have me?”

Julian’s eyes warmed as did his smile as he stretched forward to kiss his master’s lips.

“Always.”

* * *

_Seven._

Robert’s power allowed him to keep the fight an even one, despite being vastly outnumbered. He wondered where on earth Lukasz had gone to, but Kuba was doing all right on his own. Robert used the senses he possessed to disarm, cheat and gain advantage over his contemporaries and their offspring.

The only true leverage he had was one he had gotten the upper hand on the fifth eldest of the original coven.

“Silly, stupid little Thomas Müller,” Robert taunted as he used the dark magic to force him back into a small copse of trees. “Defending your family’s honor too dull for you? Would you rather not be causing mischief somewhere else? Stupid boy.”

As predicted, Thomas lunged forward and Robert took the opportunity to grasp him by the head, jerking it backwards at the same time he impaled the young vampire on a limb sticking forward from a tree. Straight through his heart.

Robert smiled darkly but it only lasted a moment before another branch was lunged backwards and then released with momentum as it whipped back, it caught him straight in the abdomen, winding him. Robert went down to the ground, taking a moment to get up. He saw Mario Gomez approaching where Thomas was turning to ash and the look on his face implied there was more between the two than a coven-forged bond.

“You should have trained him better.” Robert sneered.

“You should have been a more faithful son.” Mario’s mouth had opened, but it was Pep’s voice that spoke the words.

Robert tilted his head back and saw his former master appear just as Thomas Müller finally faded away entirely, ashes dancing away on the night’s wind.

* * *

_Nine._

Joachim smiled as he finally breached the room of mirrors. Benedikt frowned at the unexpected emergence of the visitor. He had only had one other, the salt and pepper bearded vampire from earlier, yet this man was clean shaven and looked rather like a monk. A strange, unusual monk, but nevertheless…

“Ah, you must be Benedict. My name is Joachim and I have come to rescue you. If you’d be so kind, we don’t have much time…”

Benedict, already rising when seeing the man, moved much faster when he heard him speak. He reached out and took the offered hand and wasn’t sure what to expect so he held on tightly and felt as the wind began to move around his body and soon the mirrors began to fade away as the darkness of a shadow overtook them.

* * *

_Eight._

“Where did I go wrong with you?” Pep asked, looking at his former pupil.

“Everywhere.” Robert sneered and picked himself up off of the ground. Mario still lingered nearby, but Robert ignored him for the far greater threat. “How are you still alive?”

Pep shook his head. “There are many things you still have to learn, though I think it safer if you do not learn the ways of death. For you have caused enough of it and it would be vastly unfair for you to be able to resurrect yourself.”

Pep dodged the sudden bolt of energy that Robert summoned and diverted it so that it was returned to the sky. Robert tried manipulating the earth to create a fissure so deep that it would cause him to fall in, but Pep avoided it by filling it with rocks. Robert then tried the wind to blow so strongly that it toppled everyone over, but Pep shielded them with an invisible prism that buffered the blast away.

“Will you not yield? Go quietly into the night and you may perhaps see your sister again.” Pep spoke despite the howl of the wind.

Robert’s malice echoed supreme on his face and in his voice. “Never. I will defeat you, master, as I should have done years ago.”

Pep sighed. “Be it of your own making then.”

In a move that was combined by both Pep, Joachim, and Mario, all three propelled their energies forward into one combined motion that trapped Robert in a void of blackness, a hole that had opened mid-air and everything that was sucked into it. Pep used his vast strength to help Joachim keep the portal open as Mario used the ability to move things with his mind to float Robert right into the void.

Shaking with fury, Robert disappeared and the hole collapsed in on itself.

The wind died and the fissure remained but all else was still.

“Did it work?” Mario asked, weakened by the effort.

Pep used his senses to check the surrounding area. “Perhaps, but come along Mario. This night is not yet over. And though Thomas is gone, there are still others we must see to.”

Mario nodded and swallowed hard at the loss of his friend. There would be time to dwell on it later. For now, Pep was right. The night was not over and much needed to be finished to make sure that Robert never returned again.


	17. Requiem

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Omg an update. WHAT. Ahem. We're nearing the end of this tale. Hopefully it won't be another longass time before I update again. Hope you like this chapter, I promise the next one will be better ;) :D

Benedikt could feel himself slipping back into the coldness, the blackness but he tried to continue pushing himself forward through the water and to match up with Mats’ strides. Who would have thought vampires would be good swimmers, Benedikt thought as he tried to keep up.

He wasn’t sure what happened but he went from thinking about Mats to having a mouthful of water and he began to writhe, fighting the frigid hands that pulled at his ankles to bring him back under the surface. He lashed out but could grab hold of nothing as he continued to sink and panic began to rise as he began to choke, more water filling his mouth and sliding down his throat.

A strong arm wrapped itself around his waist and hauled up, first it was awkward because of the angle but then Mats’ shifted his grip and pulled hard again and Benedikt finally got some purchase as they both swam upwards together. Once he broke the surface, Benedikt began coughing up seawater and struggling for oxygen. Mats kept hold of him as the vampire began to swim again and Benedikt let himself glide along, trying to assist once he caught his breath.

Mercifully, it did not take long before they had reached something solid, a small shelf of rock that protruded into the water. Mats pulled Benedikt up and let him sit for a moment. There was little light to see much of anything, but still Benedikt felt Mats’ fingers glide along his cheek.

“Are you all right?” He asked and Benedikt shivered violently.

“I’m freezing. And I feel so tired, I shouldn’t be this tired, should I?”

Mats shook his head, or at least Benedikt thought he did, and he felt Mats’ hands lifting him up again by his armpits.

“Come on, no time to rest now. You’re shivering and Julian will have clothes for you. You must also be starving.” Mats helped to support his weight and they continued ahead on the rocky path that was seemingly sloping upwards.

“How can you see in the blasted dark?” Benedikt asked leaning more heavily on Mats than he would have liked as his teeth began to chatter.

“You are aware I’m a vampire, yes?” Mats sounded amused and Benedikt would’ve hit him if he hadn’t stumbled over a rock and needed the vampire’s quick reflexes to catch him before he fell.

“The thought had occurred to me once or twice.”

Mats laughed softly but helped Benedikt along in the darkness as they followed a path only he could see. The rocky slope continued upwards and the sound of the water lapping at the edge of the rocks began to grow more distant and soon fresh air hit Benedikt’s face as the moonlight began to give his eyes something to adjust to. They found the cavern entrance and the rush of wind that wrapped around both of them temporarily made Benedikt deaf with the sound of it.

The sea was perhaps a hundred meters below them and the cliffs were covered in grass that whipped with the breeze. Ahead of them, a small circle of glowing fire illuminated two figures. Benedikt frowned as Mats led him towards both of them.

Julian was the first Benedikt recognized as the boy stood in greeting and carried over a large towel. Benedikt was too grateful for something dry to wrap around himself that he didn’t immediately give credence to the second person that was standing silently behind Julian’s shoulder. As soon as the towel lowered from his eyes, the firelight illuminated someone who resembled him exactly, apart from the fact the stranger had longer hair.

Benedictus smiled and extended his hand and spoke in very accented English. “Greetings. You must be Benedikt.”

Benedikt found it very odd to be shaking hands with his duplicate, but not quite as weird as the way Mats suddenly found himself busy with minutiae as the two Benedikt’s made one another’s acquaintance.

* * *

Kuba watched from his position on his back under one of the coven’s vampires as Robert disappeared in a giant orb of darkness before it disappeared. Robert’s presence faded and Kuba wondered if he and Lukasz were both finally free. His vision hadn’t told him how, only that Robert would disappear tonight, the implication had been that he was dead.

The distraction of Robert’s fury and being cast out of the earthly realm and the great show of power that had created such a spell had run its course as the vampire on top of him snarled and gripped Kuba by the throat. There were too many of them and Kuba had been overpowered; he calmed himself and waited for the death blow that would finish him.

Philipp came to stand beside the vampire that was on top of him, a dark haired one with distrust in his eyes and fury on his face. He rested a hand on the vampire’s shoulder.

“Mario, enough. Let us give him a choice.”

The vampire, Mario, looked distrustful but snarled as he let Kuba up, making sure to keep one arm pinned behind his back.

Pep, Robert’s master and a vampire Kuba had heard about only via whispers and his own visions, approached them and was looking him over. Kuba straightened and ignored the force of the grip on his arm as he met their master’s gaze.

“You are a devoted pupil to your leader, are you not?” Pep asked patiently.

“He was my maker. I owe him some loyalty because of that.” Kuba answered. Pep appeared to have little trouble understanding him, though the others didn’t seem to recognize the language in which he spoke.

“Indeed, a student should have some loyalty to their teacher. You are a smart man. You were a boy once, though, and he would have killed you then. You know that as well, don’t you?” Pep never raised his voice, but his words still seemed to have shaken him as though Kuba had been shouted at. He remained silently for a long while, simply to hold back his answer.

“Yes.” He replied finally.

Pep nodded and continued to look him over before he spoke again. “You are of good intention, I can see that. I don’t wish to harm you; we were only here for Robert and his crimes against our family. You may join us if you wish, or go about your own course of life if you desire it. The choice is yours.” Pep said the last in a language they all understood.

Kuba felt Mario ease his grip on his arm and whether or not he did that on his own or from a silent order issued from Pep, Kuba wasn’t sure. Taking his arm back Kuba flexed his muscles before looking at Pep with narrowed, distrustful eyes.

“And my mate? Where has he gone to?” When Pep didn’t answer right away, Kuba added, “or is he dead also?”

“Your mate, the blonde one?” The wizard who created the void asked, more curious than anything else. Kuba nodded once and fixed his eyes onto the man. A moment’s distraction occurred when he sensed the blood running through the man’s veins.

“I believe he is still on the hill where my cohort had knocked him senseless and I left him bound there. I believe Bastian is watching him.” The wizard smiled pleasantly enough.

“I would take him with me,” Kuba readdressed Pep and relaxed internally at hearing that Lukasz was all right.

“As you wish. I only ask that you do no harm to me or my family.” Pep stared into Kuba’s eyes and the vampire nodded his agreement before he started off to find Lukasz’ scent and get him back. He was wary of the others in the group but he left them behind, running quickly for his mate.

Pep watched him go and shook his head, momentarily saddened at having lost a greatly gifted vampire. He would do well enough on his own, Pep thought as he looked at where Mario was shaking with unrequited justice. The eldest vampire moved over and took him by the shoulder to make him look into his eyes. It took a moment as Mario had a thousand-yard stare and looked past him for the longest time.

“Mario, Thomas is gone. We have work to do now. You may mourn him later.”

Mario almost snarled again but nodded once, though he looked upset. Pep squeezed his shoulder and addressed all of them.

“Dawn is coming soon, we need to be back in London. Those of you who can transform, do so and be on your way. Those of you who can’t, find a way north and meet us at the human’s home tomorrow. Be safe.” 

They began to disband and Pep nodded to Mario before turning to follow Joachim back to the hilltop in which they’d left Jurgen.

* * *

“I’m not sure what I expected,” Benedikt confessed as Mats flew them back towards London.

“What do you mean?” Mats was pretending not to revel in the feel of his human in his arms again. He quite liked flying Benedikt around, if only so he could cop a feel of the human’s flesh without feeling to obvious about it.

“I thought if Benedictus and I ever met that the world would tear apart or something.” Benedikt shrugged and clutched to Mats a little tighter as their altitude began to descend.

“It still might. Who knows if what they did to get you out even worked, truly.” Mats mused more to himself, but added when he felt the human stiffen in his arms, “I’m very glad that you’ve returned to me. We need to have a conversation.”

With that, Mats stopped suddenly, nearly frightening Benedikt at how fast they had landed--fallen?--to the rooftop of somewhere in south London. Benedikt was still cold, but he had been wrapped in dry clothes from his own wardrobe at home and so he felt a little better, still he would prefer to sleep for quite a while before having to do any further activities with the vampires.

Mats had affixed a firm yet unyielding look on Benedikt’s person and he didn’t divert his eyes for a moment as the human rubbed at his chilled arms.

“What is it then?” Benedikt asked.

“This, between us.” Mats started and then stopped, sighed, and ran a hand through his hair. “You’re a _human_ after all.”

“Well spotted,” Benedikt remarked, frowning. “Where are you going with this?”

“You’re not an ugly man.”

“Thank you?” Benedikt looked affronted and unhappy and Mats swore in his natural tongue before he advanced on the human, who took an immediate step back.

“You disappeared and I didn’t know what had happened to you! I hated the not knowing and then Benedictus turns up and--Gods, I can’t stand that man--but you’re not him, and yet you’re like him, but you aren’t?”

Benedikt watched him go around and around verbally for a few moments before he raised an eyebrow and held his hand up.

“Mats, please. Can’t we discuss this another time?”

“No, damn it. I won’t have another one of my family lay claim on you. You’re my human.”

The two words paired together like that sent a pleasurable thrill down into Benedikt’s lower belly as he was delighted by the prospect. However, he wasn’t quite sure what that amounted to. So he asked.

“What does being your human mean? I am not your property.”

“It means I…” Mats paused and shook his head. “You’re right, we can discuss this later. Just don’t let any of my coven bite you.”

Before Benedikt could react or question him further, Mats had him in his arms again and was taking flight off the roof back towards Benedikt’s house just as the sun began to tease the horizon with its presence.


End file.
